Hiriya - The Center of Environment Education has recently been renovated. A lot of people were involved in this project, but one specific that I admire and is definitely giving the tone of Hiria's charming look is artist Brigitte Cartier which her artistic magic language is all over the place.
The Center has a very live full facebook page and some of its future activities is a TEDx event and a "Purim" workshop for preparing costumes from waste.
Amélie (2001) Le fabuleux destin d'Amélie Poulain (original title)
Thinking of Brigitte Cartier I have in mind this image of Audrey Tautou as Amélie.
Well, she is french, an artist (studied at the Beaux-Arts), full of charm, love, good will, tons of empathy, lots of ideas, lots of energy, creative energy that shouts its way in colors and materials to burst out. Some "Great balls of fire" this Brigitte...
In Israel she is well known establishment in the upcycle scene. She is responsible to the revolution of the visitor center of Hiria - the biggest landfill in Israel. As Karen Chernick wrote: (Brigitte) "...is the magician responsible for transforming the Hiria garbage dump into an upcycling design Mecca."
When chatting with her on a cozy winter day, in her charming apartment, with a cup of tea in my hand, I asked her, how could she convert the life in Paris (the absolute capital of beauty) to a life in Tel Aviv? She said it's not always easy living here (especially these times...), but as an artist she also finds it, very interesting and inspiring: hard, ruff, fanatical, full of hate, but than again full of love, high involvement and open minded.
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Lets go over Brigitte's stuff
She cut carpets founded in the street
Notes on the wall
Her own acrylic Rembrants
She just threw something on the lamp
Heart - brought by her dog from the street
Stuff founded in the street with her gold touch
A sketch for a pillow
Dolls collection
Collector - did I say?
Stuff on the door she upcycled from plastic bags
Left overs from Hiria - upcycled cans
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Upcycled interior designs of Brigitte in the Hiria" visitor center
Upcycled stuff in the main hall of Hiria
Upcycled plastic bottles, cork and tires
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Upcycled interior designs of Brigitte in the ecological store - "The Green Fairy"
Upcycled lamp - from plastic leak leftovers
Big red flower - upcycled plastic bags and green pipe
Toys Chandelier
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Upcycled stuff from The Bat-Yam Biennial of Landscape Architecture
Cooperation of: Ben Cabelli, Amir Weiser & Brigitte Cartier - Garage Beige: studio for green design
Street light - upcycled stuff
The movie from the biennial - Street art from recycled bicycle:
When I was a teenager I had this complete perfect image of my future woman's look - wearing only black cloths. Not a black "The Cure" printed t-shirt, but the clever Yohji (Yamamoto) kind of black (in that time I didn't really know who was he).
First time I met Elanit Neutra's bags I knew I love them for they were all black.
Elanit is coming with the rock-blond-tall girl look, and if one's look say something about one's garbage collection, so tiers would be definitely a perfect match for her.
She studied graphic design (apparently we were overlapped for two years in Wizo Haifa Academy of Design). Than she continued to study interior design, post production and worked as a set designer. In all of that time she was always collecting tiers from the streets and "played bags" with them. Eventually this hobby became her business.
Her work shouldn't be "hash tagged" as fashion unless you consider the "timeless - must have in my wardrobe" side of it.
The tiers arrive on a special delivery from someone who actually sells this stuff. For Elanit, opening that pile of the black treasure and finding out what colors came from the black this time, is the highlight of the whole process. There is something very exciting in opening a box full of surprises, something that recreates our childhood innocent experience.
The tiers come with all kind of texture: smooth, striped, colored stripes, dense stripes. Some look like washed jeans and some have typography on them. The last kind is my favorite.
That's my own interpretation for "The colors of black"
The different variety of the original material are the reason for the "one of a kind" result.
That's the Neutra I'll buy right after I would buy an iPad.
That's the Neutra I'll have for the change from the iPad.
I like that Neutra's designs are flowing peacefully with the material and not giving in to it, that's what makes the result so quietly perfect.
I think this is the version of Neutra for the "Little Black Dress".
And that's my Neutra :-)
Neutra plays for so long with tiers, she knows exactly the way they move, so she moves on designing jewelry, furniture, baskets, planters and more to come.
And as the Yohji said: “Black is modest and arrogant at the same time. Black is lazy and easy - but mysterious. But above all black says this: "I don’t bother you - don’t bother me".”
