Jordan Swartz- The Rad Times #6

If you’re reading this it’s probably because you’ve seen my Follow Friday posts on instagram. Every Friday I share a wide range of images (art, food, fashion, travel, design, etc.) that I had seen the previous week. That’s where this newsletter comes in, I often find media that falls outside the bounds of a single instagram image or something that I’d like to expound upon more than just a story share. This space will be for those longer form pieces (videos, bodies of work, music, long form journalism, etc.)

Thanks for hanging!
Be good to each other.

A few years ago artist Steven Harrington got to design a skateable sculpture park alongside the Dew Tour. An artist known for his psychedelic-pop aesthetic, in hindsight this was a no brainer. Palm tree quarter pipes, a kicker to giant sunglasses, a snake wave ramp; it’s his 2D illustrations brought to life and meant to be used. I love anyway you can bring art to the masses.

I love this show and have excitedly watched it as new episodes dropped over the years. Sharing surf communityies and culture from around the world, with a local guide they seek out weird waves (they weren’t lying.) Glacier surfing in Alaska, The Eisbach in Germany, and even surfing tanker waves; they give a rad look into some scenes and places you’d never actually see or be exposed to. The above episode particularly got me just as a reminder of how much we are just temporary on this planet and how nature trudges on with or without us.

Space 10 was a research and design lab that sought to explore ways to improve life at home, and ease our impact on the planet. What started as a 3 year project funded by IKEA’s parent company, lasted almost a decade, introducing a number of projects and hosting numerous public events. While not a fan or interested in everything they did, I love any space that allows you to explore new ideas. As I’ve traveled and lived various places over the course of my life, the idea of a more sustainable city and environment has become more and more important to me. With the Urban Village Project they sought to develop a “template for a shared living community for people of all ages, backgrounds, and living situations. The objective is to enable a better everyday life through the benefits of a tight-knit community with access to shared facilities and services.” I still think about this project often as I move about the world and experience different cities and places.

While there have been some hiccups in the opening ceremony uniforms the last few years, I think they did a great job this year. The blazers nodding to mens dress for the better part of the 20th century and influencing what would come to be known as ivy style, blue jeans as a distinctly working class symbol, and the white shoes again a reference to ivy culture of the mid 1990’s as well as tennis culture that simply became athletic culture as the 1990s progressed. I think these are classy, clean, and a good representation of cross sections of the U.S.

I recently finished a new collage series “Cemetery Talk” that is currently on display at Curio in Lancaster, PA. through the end of August. A bunch of new works have been added to my store along with some larger sizes of the Cemetery Talk series being added later this week.