Summer Internship at the Dream Community

Summer Internship at the Dream Commnity in Taipei Taiwan

The Dream Community in Taipei, Taiwan is proud to announce the opening of its Summer 2014 Design Internship.  The Dream House Design Internship is an 8 week program, taking place from June 7th to August 2nd.  Only 8 students will be accepted.  Artists can apply as individuals or as a group but each individual must submit the following:

*portfolio consisting of 10 images or one video

*one paragraph explaining why you are interested in coming to the Dream             Community and what you hope to accomplish

*one paragraph project proposal

Who is invited to apply:

*Design students

*Emerging visual artists

What we provide:

airfare

room and board

small living stipend ($50/wk)

full access to glass studio, clay kiln, metal studio and wood shop

artist mentorship

What to expect from the experience:

exposure to Taiwanese culture

collaboration with artists in your field

being a part of a large scale building project

experimentation and team support

The Dream Community has temporarily opened up an unfinished set of high rise of luxury apartments to be an "artists' playground", a place for artists to implement uncustomary and unusual home design ideas. 

The Dream House Design Internship is an opportunity to challenge your skills to fabricate lighting, mosaic and mural designs in a real world context.  We are looking for gifted designers who are interested in pushing the boundaries of normalcy.  Our program seeks to create two apartments decorated with mosaic, mural, lighting fixtures and hardware which are wild, experimental, repurposed and completely new. 

For more information visit:

http://dctaiwan.blogspot.tw

Send finished applications to: claudio0323@gmail.com

Thankstaking at the Dream Community

Dream Community Christmas Card 2013

It's holiday season at the Dream Community.  A special time of the year to remember the small things that make our cultures unique.

Thanksgiving aka. Sexy Chicken Party

Chicken God

Thanksgiving went much like I believe the first Thanksgiving might have gone.  The Americans had some idea of celebrations back home... of roasted turkey and cranberry sauce.  The natives made a party that looked like a breeding room at a zoo built by kindergarden teachers from Florida and told everyone to dress like sexy chickens.  There was dancing and a mambo line and a giant inflatable pecking chicken.  The puritans were uncomfortable in their paper and cardboard outfits.

Pilgrims

Amy spent all day preparing the most glorious meal.

The dinner was preceded by native drumming and some kind of chicken dance.

The puritans insisted on praying before our meal.

The custom of prayer was lost on everyone.

By the time all photos were taken and the meal was served, everyone was starving and cold.

After all had eaten, the puritans accused the natives of living in heathenism and declared the land of the Dream Community to be AMERICA.

The pilgrims accused Gordon of witchcraft.

Gordon was made to accept the ways of the pilgrims and revoke his un-christian way of life.

Everyone left the evening feeling confused but satiated with bellies full of turkey and pie.

Fantasy House Party

All professional photos courtesy of Ian Chen.

Fantasy House

TEAM 1 SEATTLE ARTISTS DESIGN 4 ELEVATOR LOBBIES

Anika and Zak hail from a small island off of the coast of Seattle.  John and Bobert are their buddies from Seattle proper who work together in a glass studio.  Zak is a blacksmith who looks like Thor and wears a utili-kilt and makes really beautiful things out of metal.  Anika excels at glass sand casting and seems to know a little about everything.  

John and Bobert's specialty is showing their wands to each other.  They blow each other's wands and spin them around til they're so hot that is seems like their bulges are going to explode.  Sometimes they even let other people help while they're blowing each other and then the bulges get really big until they can finally get their giant balls off.  It's so awesome to watch.

JAMES BOND PARTY IN ELEVATOR LOBBIES

The Seattle crew was asked to make sculptures for 4 elevator lobbies.  Each artist chose a project and had to accomplish their goal within one month's time and every piece was a collaboration.   To celebrate their project's finish, we had a James Bond party in the elevator lobbies.  

PIECE 1: ANNIKA'S NAKED LADY SAND-CAST

PIECE 2: JOHN'S FORMS

 PIECE 3: BOBERT'S WATER BIRD

PIECE 4: ZAK'S SCONCES

ADDITIONAL PIECE: MARBLE

TEAM 2: NEW ORLEANS LADIES DESIGN BOUTIQUE APARTMENT

At some point this past month, I looked at my reflection in the mirror in the bathroom in which we were working and thought, "If I told myself that at the age of 25 I would be doing an Ernst Haeckel bathroom mosaic with 4 gamelan musicians from Bali, I wouldn't have believed it".  But there it was, and I liked it.  

As a working artist and someone who regularly makes ridiculous choices in order to be able to create my own art, I found the idea of making lamps hard to digest.  Sometimes it's nice to be taken out of your comfort zone.  I was delighted to welcome my friend Jade Brandt back to work on one of these Fantasy Houses.  Our mission was to create 4 lighting fixtures, one mural, 2 mosaics and a sculpture.  During our concept meetings, there was a lot of focus on Egyptians, Hello Kitty, Japanese color schemes centering around the colors teal and plum, boobs and trees.

The mosaic on the floor of the balcony is borne of Jade's Japanese color palate with a bit of an Arabesque shape.  Working in this new palate was so much fun.  It was one of those great collaborative moments in which you discover an entirely new mode of operating.

Jade's inspiration for this chandelier was underwater salvage.  Jade found these great milk glass beads at the Taipei second hand market and we went with it.  

The bird lamp we threw together using a lot of fodder that we had sitting around the community.  We found the lamp frames at the scrapyard and welded them together to make bird cages.  Jade carved the bird bodies and decorated them.  We covered the lamp in tiny green leaves.  

This lamp gained the title "The Butcher takes a Wife".  We made a steel pantie frame and coated the fabric and lace in epoxy resin then attached bottles that we melted in the kiln and pieces of glass on which we transferred pictures that we had taken at the local meat market.  This was Jade's and my favorite but none else really seems to get it.

 

This Wardian Case is my second project to come out of the metal shop.  It is supposed to be two cranes bending together.  Inside reside some of Taiwan's most beautiful succulents, our pet giant snail, Little Jerry, and three mosaic nuclear bombs.  

Our bathroom mosaic was inspired by Ernst Haeckel.  We wanted to build a mermaid tank and ended up designing a bathroom.  Voila.

Party #2: Christmas Eve

Twas the night before Christmas and all through the Fantasy House, the sugarplum fairy helped the bad little boys and girls to eat too many cookies and cheese balls and get very fat!

When they were all nice and plump, the sugarplum fairy shoved them into the fireplace so that they  could be roasted for the real Christmas feast!

There was a very special Yuletide elf with a pillow of soft boobies.

And little girls who wanted to be even prettier than the Yuletide Christmas elf.

No, no, little girl.  Nobody can be prettier than the Yuletide elf!  Witches hate children.  They make us sick.

Comang and Made were prancing and dancing.

All of the sexiest dream boys and girls got to have a party behind the fireplace.

...and Santa listened to our Christmas wishes.  It was so glorious.

Somebody wants eggnog forever.

Then there was so much eggnog  that all of the people became very sleepy.

and 'ol Saint Nicholas ate too many cookies.

Saint Nicholas is always the belle of the ball, with his wreath of inflated rubbers and silver bells g-string.

This is my favorite picture from the night.  

Oh Mrs. Claus is so majestic!

Goodnight little elf. 

Sweet Dreams!