Animated gif of the takedown of Polytopia from the upArt 2011 installation.

It took months to make, a week to assemble, 4 hours to hoist up, 2 hours to nail in place, and only 1 hour to take down. It was kind of sad!

This project has a lot of life of its own, in a way, and ripping out the staples felt like disecting some creature. I kept whispering to it that it shouldn’t worry, and that I hoped it didn’t hurt too much. A surprisingly strong and strange reaction to the task at hand, and no doubt the thick layer of fatigue that filtered my reality at that point in the exhibition had lots to do with it.

Marc Ngui takes down the Polytopia component of The Reef installation. There was a whole lot of ladder action with this project...

Polytopia is an ongoing textile art project and it formed the background component for the Reef installation that happened 27 – 30 October 2001 as part of the Gladstone Hotel’s upART art fair in Toronto, Canada.

The exhibit was wonderfully photographable, and as a result we have hundreds of images to edit of the installation and exhibition, and those are coming, too.

Relax, Oh Yeah, to the Day

I wrote the words and drew the word bubble. Marc did the rest. Oh yeah.

The drawing shows The Tourists, two of Marc’s recurring characaters that have so far haunted pages in his sketchbooks here and there and are starting to make more regular appearances, such as in this postcard.

Here are the interior pages to show how the illustrations were used. You can read the whole article online on the magazine’s website.

Page 32 and 33 of The Scientist magazine, September 2010, with digital art illustration by Magda Wojtyra.

Page 34 and 35 of The Scientist magazine, September 2010, with digital art illustration by Magda Wojtyra. (Collage with other RNA molecules by the magazine.)

Page 36 and 37 of The Scientist magazine, September 2010, with digital art illustration by Magda Wojtyra. (Collage with other RNA molecules by the magazine.)

My self-portrait that I submitted for the contributors' page . I can barely keep my eyes open in the glare of the Los Angeles sun.

Here’s what the magazine wrote for the biography blurb, based on an interview with me:

I think science is really important,” says Magda Wojtyra, who finds her niche as a graphic designer, digital artist, photographer, world traveler, and stuffed animal and jewelry creator. Wojtyra did the cover art for this month’s issue, from her “Waterwalk” series, which was created through the digital manipulation of an image of RNA. Magda also designs “art websites for scientists and other heroes,” through her company RNA Studio (www.rna.ca).

Madga learned design while at school for architecture at the University of Waterloo. “What I like about all the different design, including architecture, is the storytelling aspect,” she says. Some of her work will be exhibited during the Nuit Blanche show at the Gladstone Hotel in Toronto, Ontario on October 2, 2010.

Knit log pillows by Chick sin Design.

I just love these knit bolster pillow covers by Hong Kong based Chic sin Design. Originally I found the items in their Etsy shop.

The pillows are in the shape and size of tree logs “chewed by beavers”, and the tree bark and other texture graphics are knitted into the textile in several colours, rather than printed on the surface.

In this image you can see the stockinette pattern of just several colours of yarn knitted to make the white birch texture of one of the logs.

“Special knitting machine”. Hm. Sounds like I have some googling to do about a very fun process, because this stuff looks amazing.

Have a look at this cosily realistic looking grizzly bear bean bag.

And how about the pillow of… folded Hong Kong dollar bills…? And the three foot tall calendar pin-up girl calendar pillow that is… a functional calendar for 2010?

And the… Wait. What is that? Is that a pillow knitted to look like a 12 inch bag of weed, complete with a purple-blue press seal and glare off the “plastic”?!

It IS a pillow knitted to look like a press seal sandwich bag of weed!! Click the photo to check out the product webpage .

The product description for this series is a treat:

Drugs give easy way outs in life. They cause reliefs by de-stressing, unrevealing your true hidden self so one could express without boundaries, and providing an escape route to problems in life. However, all these “seen-to-be” enjoyable moments are temporary illusive and addictive.  The stronger desire for drugs the more you travel between unreality and reality and eventually you will lose the control over drugs and drugs will start taking control over you.

There seems to be quite a bit of travel between “unreality and reality” in this unlikely combination of pillow themes, and Chic sin Design explains on their website:

…our products are classified into two line: “Chic line” and “Sin line”.

Chic Line: A line of products, which are most emphasized on the esthetics, simplicity and visually impression.

Sin Line: A line of product that launches with a message conveyed uniquely and intently.

Different themes are set up for different seasonal products around the year. All products and created with true emotions and expressions, usually on dissatisfactions to the society today. As views to aspects of life and society may be something very personal and ephemeral, you might find some of our products presented in an unpleasant style. However, we believe it is this uniqueness and sarcasm which make this line of products attractive to like-minded consumers.

A lovely display of the flexible and forgiving nature of English grammar and a dizzying array of dualistic ideas on the home decor front.

The icing on the cake for me is that Chic sin Design makes for “chicks in design” in the website domain, www.chicsindesign.com, and the contact page for Chic sin Design lists Charles and Keith. Charles and Keith of Hong Kong. Of course. I love this world that is getting crazier and more wonderful by the minute.

Splurgekiss drawing by Marc Ngui. Pen and watercolour, Auroville, 2008