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Trans-disciplinary designer Chris Fussner’s favorite spots in Brooklyn

Having lived in various cities across the globe and self-identifying as a “trans-disciplinary designer” working across various industries, it’s no surprise that Chris Fussner calls the multicultural, creative melting pot of New York home. We follow along as he takes us on a tour of Brooklyn – the borough where he eats, plays and dances the night away.

November 1, 2017

Text: Sam Polcer

Images: Sonny Thakur

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It’s hard to explain what I do, but I’d describe myself as a trans-disciplinary designer working at the intersection of design, business and art; the connective tissue is creativity. I’m liaising with designers, researchers and technologists and currently working on a project called Tropical Futures Institute, which relates to my own search for cultural identity.

Through this moniker, I’ve been producing work that’s in line with my mother Annie Chen’s own mission of preserving, exhibiting, fostering and collecting Filipino artwork in the Philippines – her Cebu City gallery, 856 G Gallery, is one of very few galleries in the southern Philippines.

New York is the perfect place to work across disciplines because as a city, it’s very intersectional. There are a lot of different spaces clashing with each other, dancing with each other, or in close proximity to each other – and the same can be said for the city’s cultures and identities.

Here, you have an apparent relation with a lot of otherness. It draws out these relationships and forces you to confront who you are. You’re meeting all these different people, all these mixes and situations, and it amplifies your identity, allowing you to become more of who you are.

I was born and raised in Singapore – I spent about 25 years there – and went on many excursions throughout Southeast Asia, but I’d always go to the Philippines for Christmas, New Year’s and during the summer. My mom is from Cebu; she’s really my anchor and connection toward that part of my identity, as well as the person who introduced me to design.

When I was very young, I would go to her silver studio and play with blowtorches and make stuff. When I was 20, I left school to take some time off to work and ended up starting a men’s clothing label in Singapore called Sifr, which I ran for four or five years.

That was the first big leap for me into design, followed by a decision to leave that business, Singapore and my whole life in Southeast Asia, roll the dice and move to New York to finish up school at Parsons School of Design.

At first, I was intimidated, because there are a lot of layers to this place. Every year I stay here, some other layer is revealed. I hate to say it because it feels so cliché, but you have those quintessential New York moments.

For instance, when I was relatively new to the city, a friend took me to a dance party – in Singapore a lot of my friends were house or disco DJs, and that’s a big part of my life right now – in this amazing warehouse space in Brooklyn, and I just remember thinking, “This feels very New York.”

The city has everything, but certain things won’t show up for you unless you know how to look for them or you have someone who can show them to you. It surprised me when I discovered how tribal it can be. When you get here, you see it as this big glob of people, but when you look closer, it’s really local.

In the electronic music scene, for example, all of these crews are producing their own sounds, and that’s really where the magic comes in. There are so many of these groups that they’re bound to cross-pollinate or collide, and that’s when stuff happens, when something clicks.

In a lot of ways, everyone who comes to New York is always hoping for that moment. It’s a really romantic notion, that you might run into someone or something that’s going to change your life forever, or have some sort of impact on you – and it’s the mystery and romance behind that notion that makes it so attractive.

SATURDAY

9AM
I may be a night owl, but I have an action-packed day ahead of me, so I drag myself out of bed to meet some friends for breakfast at over at Marlow & Sons, a spot that’s been championing the farm-to-table movement in South Williamsburg for quite a while. First things first: black coffee, followed by a bacon, egg and cheddar cheese sandwich on a biscuit, which I attempt to atone for with a side of sautéed kale. So Brooklyn! 81 Broadway Brooklyn, New York

The Lot Radio

11AM

Another friend – my roommate, actually – runs a music label and DJs with his friend at an internet radio station called The Lot Radio, which broadcasts out of a shipping container plopped onto a triangular patch of dirt at the border of Greenpoint. One half of the container is a radio and DJ booth – where musicians and DJs play, usually for two hours at a stretch – and the other half is a coffee shop that subsidizes the music – also very Brooklyn. I pop into the booth to say hi to the Darker Than Wax boys and chill outside in the lot for a bit, enjoying the music. 17 Nassau Ave Brooklyn, New York

Halycon, a record shop tucked into the basement of Output

12PM

I heard a record I liked, so I head to Halycon (74 Wythe Ave Brooklyn, New York), a record shop tucked into the basement of Output, a nearby dance club, to hunt it down. They have a diverse selection of electronic dance music; it takes significant willpower to keep from stuffing my arms with new releases.

A/D/O

The shopping does continue, however, just up the street at A/D/O (29 Norman Ave Brooklyn, New York), a design center with a well-curated store in an airy 2,100m² warehouse space. They have this beautiful industrial and product design incubator, and the store has everything from custom bicycles to analog turntables to “postmodern design objects”. I leave empty-handed, but inspired, again in awe of my restraint.

More temptation is found just across McCarren Park (Lorimer St, between Bayard and Berry Sts Brooklyn, New York) – now bustling with joggers, footballers, and picnickers – at Sri Threads (18 Eckford St, #8 Brooklyn, New York), a textile archive, gallery and shop specializing in rare fabrics featuring natural or special dyes, many of them from Japan. It’s a great place for design inspiration or if you just want to buy a throw for your living room. You do need an appointment, though.

McCarren Park
Sri fabrics

2PM

I’ve earned a decadent lunch, and for that I head back across the park to Kinfolk, a shop where some friends run a temporary kitchen called, well, Kichin. Their “Kichin Fried Chicken Bowl” is like bibimbap, but with fried chicken. It’s also got rice, slaw, pickled cucumbers and this Sriracha aioli… needless to say, I don’t hold back here. 90 Wythe Ave Brooklyn, New York

 

MoMA PS1

4PM

Just over the Brooklyn and Queens border are a pair of mesmerizing attractions: First up is MoMA PS1, (22-25 Jackson Ave Long Island City, New York), a sprawling contemporary art museum housed in an old school. During certain seasons, they have massively popular dance parties in the courtyard, but I’m here to wander the hallways and take in the exhibitions and site-specific installations – like James Turrell’s Meeting, which invites viewers to stare at an unobstructed view of the sky. It’s cooler than it sounds, but maybe that’s just because we New Yorkers don’t actually look at the sky that often.

The Noguchi Museum (9-01 33rd Rd Long Island City, New York), also in Queens, is even more meditative. Here, I’m completely immersed in Isamu Noguchi’s work, from his early days to his more sculptural pieces. I identify with the fact that he was an Asian American who rediscovered his Asian identity, and that his work mixes Western and Asian design principles.

7PM

Back in Brooklyn, there’s plenty of time for dinner and a movie at Syndicated, a cavernous bar and restaurant with Art Deco design touches and a 60-seat, full-service, dine-in cinema. Their lineup skews toward cult hits – think Stanley Kubrick and John Waters flicks – and select new releases. All I can really think about, however, is how good it feels to sit down for a bit. 40 Bogart St Brooklyn, New York

11PM

The feeling doesn’t last long, however. After stopping home for a disco nap, I head around the corner to Black Flamingo. The “plant-based taqueria and discotheque” is unassuming on the outside – as unassuming as a spot with a glowing neon pink flamingo on its exterior can be, anyway – but it’s what’s inside that impresses. Upstairs, the theme is delightfully tropical, with palm tree wallpaper and illustrations of flamingos.

Downstairs, you’ll find an intimate, inviting dancefloor that’s powered by some of the best DJs in the city on a top-notch sound system. I’m having such a good time that an after-hours club sounds enticing – but there’s another full day tomorrow, so, once again, displaying great maturity, I walk back upstairs and head home. 168 Borinquen Pl Brooklyn, New York

SUNDAY

Devoción

10AM

I like my coffee heart palpitation-strong, and for that I head straight toward the water on Grand Street for Devoción, a “fourth-wave” coffee shop, where they fly the beans in directly from the grower and no more than 10 days pass between harvesting and brewing. After a cup of their Colombian coffee and a croissant in their enormous, sky-lit space, I’m in high gear. 69 Grand St Brooklyn, New York

11AM

Now that I’m properly caffeinated, I’m ready to shop. Before heading over to the Red Hook waterfront, a quick walk to 10 Ft Single by Stella Dallas, my favorite vintage clothing store, is in order. I’m really into their selection of vintage workwear and I snag a pair of hickory painter paints from there that I love. 285 N Sixth St Brooklyn, New York; +1 718 486-9482

Pioneer Works

1PM

Denim workwear was the right idea, considering my next stop: a neighborhood called Red Hook, which has a very different feel than the rest of Brooklyn. I have this theory that it’s where all the older hipsters moved to; if you were a new Brooklynite in the late ’90s or early ’00s, eventually you might have ended up moving to Red Hook.

I start my Red Hook tour at Pioneer Works, a non-profit culture center and gallery founded by the artist Dustin Yellin. It’s a just a cool space where you never really know what you’re going to get – it could be a musical performance, it could be an art installation, it could be a storytelling event – but you know it’s going to be creative and interesting. 159 Pioneer St Brooklyn, New York

Red Hook

2PM

From there, I take a stroll on cobblestoned streets, past red brick buildings, old warehouses converted to shops, cafés, distilleries, galleries and quirky buildings with buoys and lifesavers nailed to their exterior, taking in the area’s nautical, port town vibe. I walk out onto the Valentino Pier (Ferris St, between Coffey and Van Dyke Sts Brooklyn, New York) to gaze out at the Statue of Liberty in the distance.

The salty air and sea breeze inspires my lunch destination: Red Hook Lobster Pound (284 Van Brunt St Brooklyn, New York), where they bring in their crustaceans from Maine. A lobster roll – served Connecticut style, warm with butter and lemon and topped with paprika and scallions, with slaw, a pickle and fries on the side – is just the ticket.

4PM

Proving that most of my favorite places in Brooklyn used to be something else, the next stop is the Brooklyn Navy Yard, an expansive site that used to build warships for the US Navy. Today, it’s basically a hub for innovation and manufacturing, and houses a bunch of startups. I used to work at a crazy innovation lab here called New Lab.

To help navigate this sprawling complex of historic buildings, where more than 330 businesses have set up shop, I book a tour with Turnstile Tours and learn about the place’s history while spying on Brooklyn’s industrious creative class hard at work.

6PM

It’s back to the familiar confines of North Brooklyn, where I make a pit stop at home but head right back out, figuring an early dinner might mean a shorter wait time at Yuji Ramen. The gamble pays off and I’m soon gobbling up a delicious bacon-and-egg mazemen, which is a dry ramen mixed with different oils and broths. Delicious. 150 Ainslie St Brooklyn, New York

7.30PM

In Brooklyn, the speakeasy bar trend has evolved. Take La Milagrosa, a mezcal bar hidden behind a refrigerator door at the back of a former laundromat that’s been turned into an upscale bodega stocked with hard-to-find Mexican products. For me, the delicious agave drinks aren’t the only draw – the place is billed as a “listening room,” and it has the acoustics to support that claim.

Tonight, the DJ is spinning some bangin’ cumbia tracks out of its Macintosh amplifier. After a few drinks, the intimate, wood-paneled room gets hard to leave, but I remind myself that this is the pre-party spot, so I make my way out through the bodega and onto the street and hail a cab. 149 Havermeyer St Brooklyn, New York

9.30PM

No electronic music fan’s trip to Brooklyn would be complete without a night at Bossa Nova Civic Club, a Bushwick institution. Everyone who’s blown up in the New York techno scene has played here, and I’ve been to so many great nights. It sounds funny, but I love how much they use the fog machine. It’s a really tiny dance club, so it gets super smoked out, and as a result you feel like you’re lost in some kind of haze. You lose yourself in the music and don’t have to worry about what you look like when you’re dancing. You can just be yourself, which is what I love about this city. 1271 Myrtle Ave Brooklyn, New York

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    Welcome to my city

    Designer Marga Nograles takes us on a tour of Davao City

    Discover Tagbilaran with graphic designer and artist Felix Mago Miguel

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    • Dining and nightlife
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    Neighborhood guide: Seoul's booming Euljiro scene

    Brewing up a wave in Hanoi

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    Drag queen Manila Luzon serves Philippine-inspired looks

    Her wish is for Bicol to become the country's next culinary destination

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