Carrie Chau Tape - Wun Ying Collection

Its been a while since i received this tape as a present, a friend got it from me in Hong Kong. The perfect place to get hold of a beautiful roll of tape by graphic designer Carrie Chau.


I love this tape so much that (as you can see) i have kept it wrapped in plastic. (sad, i know)


I looked into the designer's background a bit more and have found out that she is a hugely popular designer in Hong Kong and further afield with a huge following and a huge range of products that feature her exquisite illustrations.


Below are some artworks by Carrie Chau, they are quite dreamy depictions of landscapes featuring the main character, a small woman with little horns attached to her helmet.





If you'd like to buy some tape, or check out some more of Carrie Chau's work, visit her website: www.wunyingcollection.com

Sun K. Kwak masking tape art

Sun K Kwak is a New York based artist who uses matt black masking tape to create pieces of artwork. As reported on Artinfo, 'After years of frustration, dissatisfaction, and experimentation with different mediums, the tape idea came to her one morning in a flash; by afternoon she’d created her first work with it, and she felt freer and more gratified than she had in years."




Kwak has gone on to create site-specific installations at venues ranging from the Queens Museum of Art and Drawing Center in New York to Korea’s Gwangju Biennale to the House of World Culture in Berlin. Her latest, titled Enfolding 280 Hours, opens at the Brooklyn Museum this week.


Custom made tape for the job, i'm just thinking about all the things i could do with a collection of tape like this! ...

The above photos show Sun K. Kwak installing "Enfolding 280 Hours." A very beautiful and abstract result from such pragmatic, limited and functional materials.

NAVAGLOW tape by Stella Bugbee

This cool graphic tape by Stella Bugbee looks like it has influences from American Indian graphics. A simplified, pixellated version of normally woven fabrics. You can even buy this tape through www.igloostore.com.


It comes in these cute little boxes. ahhh, i really want to order some!

Daniel Argyle Tape Artist Extroadinaire

Daniel Argyle is a contemporary australian artist who uses tape in alot of his artwork. In these pieces below he simple uses gaffer / duct tape to create simple pieces make almost entirely of tape. I'm not quite sure of the thinking or inspiration behind them and they do look ultra basic and even a bit odd, but after looking at some more of his work, i can sort of see his journey towards this stark basic use of a readily available material in his work.



He started doing these in 1998, there are whole series of them, check out his website www.danielargyle.com




In these pieces below he has covered entire walls with silver duct tape which gives a nice effect i have to say.


But even more interesting is the half finished wall with parts of the tape looking like it has either been part pulled off or left incomplete.


Amongst some of his other pieces are archive boxes paired with balls of scrunched up tape in different positions, it reminds me of my days working in the manufacturing business taping up boxes as an intern to be stored in giant warehouses never to be seen again.

BACON TAPE

Today was a beautiful sunny day in london and i decided to go and check out the new Whitechapel art gallery which has been recently refurbed. Its only been open for a couple of weeks now so even the paint still smells fresh. My highlight was seeing the Isa Genzken exhibition called Open Sesame which featured alot of her work from the 70's till recently. From her architectural work through to some more strangely mod-pop type installations.


I particularly liked her small concrete blocks with tv aerials stuck into them making them look like little minimalist remote controls. I'm not hugely analytical about modern art, but i do appreciate looking at it and wondering what was going through the mind of these people when they were in the frenzy of creating it.


Of course my favourite part was this room with huge framed mirrors outlined with pop coloured .... wait for it... TAPE!!!!! and what was on the tape? BACON... my two favourite things featured in one beautiful object!!! BACON TAPE, how obvious!


I feel a bit stupid, like i've been letting down the tape community for not reporting this bacon tape earlier. After a bit of additional research on the net, i also found this image below of someone (looking suspiciously like me) who has put bacon packing tape all over their package... i only wish they were posting it to me.


If anyone out there has either this beautiful bacon tape or the sausage tape which is part of the same set, please take some pics and send them to me!!! pleeeease.


bacon tape rocks! where are you sasuage tape? is there mash tape anywhere out there?

Here is some cool rolls of tape for kids to play with. I love the fact that the graphic makes up different shapes and elements to be used in whatever playful way you want, to create what ever you want. Our Children's Gorilla is a Swedish company with a showroom in Stockholm but pretty much all of the items are available to buy on-line. The shop mainly sells conceptual crafty kids items but i reckon this tape would appeal to all ages.





The stark black graphics on a clear background make the tape like a continuous roll of mini stickers but i think the tape works as a complete roll equally as well. The swedish really know how to do design and make things look so simplistically elegant.

Designer Duct tape by the Spoonsisters

This photographic printed graphic tape is a real stunner! Its designer duct tape and comes in Wood Grain, Houndstooth, Paisley and Basketweave.


I would love to get my hands on some of this tape, it reminds me of the 'contact' that i used to cover my school exercise books in when i was in primary school. You can buy a roll for $10 from the comprehensive gift site www.spoonsisters.com

More tape dispensers

I decided to look to see if there have been any major design breakthroughs in the world of stickytape dispensers.. and yes, i was very impressed with this hardcore tape dispenser-cum-usb-hub, let me think about what precisely was going through the mind of this designer... uhhh desks... whats on desks that i could integrate a USB hub into? staplers...pens...notepads...tape dispensers!!!! ah i have got it! although this execution isn't half bad, i think its a bit of an odd marriage. And really, how many people really do have stickytape dispensers (aside from me) on their desk?


OK, i have had enough of taking the piss out of this tape high-tech dispenser, and divert my attentions to this wierd thing below. I can understand the integration of a character into the stickytape cutting process but it seems that the part on the left (which resembles a fairly standard tape dispenser) is doing ok on its own, only to be decorated with a strange white shiny ninja man holding some kind of police batton over its head not contributing whatsoever to the actual cutting or pulling process of the stickytape dispenser. Call me a purist, but i think the white man could disappear off the face of the whole tape platform and no one would give a shit?


This below, is more what i'm taking about. The cute green man is grimacing in a stomach crunch stuck in time encouraging us to pull tape out of his mouth, whilst offering his feet up for us to cut the section off. My only complaint with this tape dispenser is that i can't imagine how big (or how small in fact) the roll of tape would have to be to fit in the green man's head.


If anyone has a decent stickytape dispenser out there, please send me a pic!

Reflective Tape

Welcome to the world of reflective tape which has come leaps and bounds in the last couple of years. Reflective tape is especially important in the world of road safety, with more and more people riding bicycles, especially around London where i live, i am a huge fan of reflective tape and all the things you can do with it.


This is a Photoluminescent tape shown in its three stages of activation. This is what it looks like in the daytime.




This type (above) looks like Scotchlite is a material made by 3M, its made up of millions of tiny glass beads affixed to the surface, the roundess of the surface of each tiny bead is what reflects the light. You can imagine why this is quite an expensive material.


You can buy it rolls to affix to your own safety items, the fluor tape to which is it attached isn't itself reflective but helps for safety in daylight hours and dusk due to its hi vis colour.



This safety jacket looks like it is sporting a reflective tape as described above.

EASTER IS HERE Bunny Tape

You come across some pretty cool things on flikr. Here are some pics on usagirondo's flikr photostream. It shows a couple of different rolls of tape, all featuring the bunny. Cut up the bunny tape and you have some sticky bunnies to stick randomly where ever you want.