There's going to be a "happening" this Saturday at Dolores Park (at 19th). That's a happening in the 50's performance art kind of way. Be on the lookout for an environmentally friendly "pop-up cafe" from 4:00-8:00 pm. Green furniture designers Jon Brumit and Mike Farruggia will supply the benches and tables and Ritual Coffee Roasters is bringing the fair-trade coffee. And there's a green party favor too- you'll get a reusable coffee mug. What's the Stark Guide angle? Sculpture that happens to be beautifully designed furniture made of recycled materials.
Do you remember the photo of the mayor sitting on a grass couch in front of city hall? It was taken last year for the lanch of the letsgreenthiscity program. The movement is a contemporary dichotomy of big business and green effort. PG&E is the sponsor and the purpose is to make renewable energy cool, to make San Francisco the "greenest" city in the nation. (Isn't is already?)
Jon and Mike are alumni of the prestigious Artist in Residence program at SF Recycling & Disposal (AKA the Dump). http://starkguide.blogspot.com/2007/06/market-street-gallery-reart-co.html. These two are talented, multi-dimensional artists who happen to be furniture designers as well. Paul Fresina, director of the program, suggested them as good candidates for the project when PG&E's PR agency, Venables Bell, embarked on assisting the energy vendor with this aspirational effort. The combination of their design skills and green art provenance was a winning combination for this project.
When you go on Saturday, you'll see 3 legged tables made of bike parts, lounge chairs from shopping carts and quite a few riffs on the ever-adaptable wine barrel. Mike and Jon collaborated on the suite of pieces and enjoyed working together on the project.
What's going to happen to the furniture afterwards? Well, they're not sure. One idea is to auction off the pieces to the highest bidder in an auction that raises money for green causes. There will be six or seven more of these "pop-up cafes" as the summer progesses so maybe you can put in an "absentee bid plus one" for after the series has concluded.
http://www.mikefarrugia.com/, http://www.jonbrumit.com/, http://www.letsgreenthiscity.com/