How To Cast Aluminum

Art review: 'Lynda Benglis' at the Museum of Contemporary Art

If you sense a collision coming, take a bow. Benglis, after surveying Manhattan's art landscape, did the only reasonable thing. In the face of its ponderous penitential virtue, she brought Mardi Gras to Soho. She looked at Jackson Pollock's skeins of dripped paint and at Helen Frankenthaler's big puddles of stained color. Barnett Newman's zip-lines -- those ambiguous vertical bars of color dividing fields of painted light and darkness -- came under scrutiny. So did more recent work: Carl Andre's checkerboards of metal plates that turned the floor into an artistic pedestal for people, Donald Judd's orderly sculptural subdivisions of space and Richard Serra's molten lead splashed into studio corners -- all of them sculptures directly challenging the postwar primacy of painting. Her paintings lie flat on the floor. They languorously unfurl in curvilinear compositions made from poured rubber and polyurethane color, all without benefit of canvas, stretcher bars or frames. One is titled "Odalisque," its sensuous roots in the harem laid bare. Others grow into deep, thick mounds of Technicolor cartoon colors or darkly scatological hues. Perversely, her sculptures trip the light fantastic on surrounding walls, rather than the floor. Galvanic lava flows seem to gush from a hidden space within the architecture itself, cantilevered out into the room without touching the ground. Some are infused with phosphorescent pigment to glow under black light. Others are tangled knots of plaster-coated canvas rolls, their flying "limbs" as energetic as any Toulouse-Lautrec can-can dancer's. Gilded or silvered fans of glittery pleated metal would do a burlesque performer proud -- or any New Orleans Mardi Gras krewe. The show was organized by Dublin's Irish Museum of Modern Art in 2009 -- her first retrospective abroad -- and has been traveling ever since in Europe and the United States. MOCA was a late addition; the decision makes sense, though, given the artist's two teaching stints at the California Institute of the Arts in the 1970s and her involvement with the influential feminist art program there.

Fun and Funky Furniture to Choose for an Outstanding Front Porch ...

Furniture constructed for using out of doors draws from the various designs passed down from hundreds of years of history. From wrought iron offerings that date back to Victorian New Orleans to chairs made popular in the Adirondack mountains, you have many design options to choose from for your porch. A note of warning: not all furniture is meant to stand the test of the elements, just because it has an outdoor look, doesn’t necessarily mean it was meant to be outdoors. When you are selecting outdoor furniture, consider the instructions for care and be aware of your warranty options.

You then need to choose your furniture based on the type of weather it will be subjected to. Your outdoor furniture may be made of more than one material.

Many pieces are made from wood. This is a versatile option for outdoor furniture. There are woods which are great in all weather, such as redwood, cypress, and teak. These options are natural and will not take a lot of maintenance.

Wood that has been treated becomes decay resistant and often shows a green/brown color, this can then be stained or painted, there is also the option of leaving it natural with a clear coat instead. You should treat any other kind of natural wood with a protective coating that resists moisture. You can choose from a treatment that has a color or is clear.

When dealing with furniture made of rattan or wicker, make sure that the chair’s frame can withstand the elements as in the example of aluminum. If you have an enclosed area that will protect your furniture from harsh weather, you may be able to use bamboo furniture. Natural wicker with special finishes or modern synthetic wicker offer varying levels of weather resistance.

Iron options have their pluses and minuses. They are great for areas that get high winds, because they are heavy. But for the same reason they are problematic as you cannot easily move them. Iron, both wrought and cast, needs regular attention with painting and touch ups to prevent rusting.

Aluminum: Both lightweight and rustproof, it comes in furniture styles ranging from inexpensive tubular frames to cast or wrought frames. Furniture can be made to appear that it is made of iron by adding a textured or baked enamel finish. To determine what you have chosen, look for the finishing details like smooth seams on the welded parts. The best quality aluminum furniture available is that of cast aluminum or thick heavy-gauge alloys.

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