Art and Architecture Archives

Every so often an artist will do something that cause the imaginative parts of the ArtsWom collective mind to kick themselves for not coming up with the idea first. Usually it is these concepts that are the best and The Blind has hooked himself up with one such idea.

Coming to us via The Wooster Collective, The Blind is a graffiti artist that does his thing with nobbly, err… bits of stuff. Unfortunately his MySpace page is all in French, so what these nobbly outward dimples are made of is unclear, however what is clear, is that he attached them to walls creating Braille messages. Genius!

After some translation trickery, ArtsWom is fairly confident the Braille in the image below reads, “Seen and seen again”.

If there is one thing ArtsWom appreciates, it is stunning design with functionality. And GoodEnough UK has achieved this pinnacle with a wooden bowl, which collapses.

SlamXHype revels in their uniqueness and they are undoubtedly tactile and beautifully crafted. These little pieces of super design can fold down flat when necessity for a bowl drops to fruit vessel factor 0. As soon as this increases however, they spring into action by popping up and functioning to secure any vaguely spherical food that might be tempted to tumble from the table.

There is certainly a degree of novelty involved in the desirability of these objects, I’m not sure there is a necessity for collapsible bowls. Nevertheless they are visually stimulating and interesting in that they are fashioned in refined natural material and in some way mechanised.

Either way ArtsWom loves them; they are Art with purpose and a must for those after unusual regularity in the centre of their sideboard. They are available at DoubleDutch.

Andy Goldsworthy, environmentalist, photographer, rock balancer. To see his work is to know that art can truly be at one with nature, as he creates pieces that fit perfectly into the outdoor environment in which they are built. Perhaps his most famous works are the stacks of stones that he leaves precariously balanced for a finite length of time, creating transient galleries that you have to be quick to visit. In fact, balancing is a key to Goldworthy’s art. Be it sticks, flowers or snowballs, he’ll pile them up in an infinite variety of fascinating forms and shapes. Usually, the pieces are left open to the elements, hostages to the forces of nature, and the photographs he takes are the only record of the existence of his art. Many times, not a single other living soul other than its creator will see a Goldsworthy sculpture.

So by playing with natural forms in this way, creating art that no one will see, and that will be destroyed by nature itself, what does Goldsworthy think about the momentary life of his pieces? “Each work grows, stays, decays - integral parts of a cycle which the photograph shows at its height, marking the moment when the work is most alive. There is an intensity about a work at its peak that I hope is expressed in the image. Process and decay are implicit.” He says that the great outdoors is not just something to be enjoyed before you return to your gritty urban life, but something to be embraced and understood. You can’t walk for one minute in the woods without finding something that is dead or decaying, which is why he intentionally sets out to create pieces using materials he finds lying at his feet that will ultimately become part of the natural cycle once more. He is truly at one with his surroundings, having settled in Dumfrieshire, with its glorious backdrops and brooding mountains. Inspiration is only ever moments from his doorstep and his art reinforces the relationship of human existence within nature. His work shows that we as humans have some ability of controlling nature, but eventually, in the end, nature controls us.

Thu 13 Sep 2007 11:05AM - 12:00PM
Tue 18 Sep 2007 7:05PM - 8:00PM

Everywhere you go in London, it’s there. More ubiquitous than the Eye, more beautiful than the BT tower, and in virtually every single exterior shot of anything filmed in the capital, Norman Foster’s SwissRe building is omnipresent. The design of the building has caused some significant controversy, not least due to its rather phallic size and shape. This documentary looks into the whys and wherefores behind the reasoning for building such an iconic structure, right in the heart of the usually staid and sober City of London.

Contributors to the programme include the architect and other interested parties, including the Mayor of London Ken Livingstone, who give their own opinions on the impact the building has had, both on the skyline and the population of the city. Was it wise to build a new structure at 30 St. Mary Axe, a site that has already been bombed? Was starting the build just one month after 9/11 insensitive? Norman Foster has called his building socially, technically, architecturally and spatially…radical’, but what effect has his landmark building had on his career and standing in the architectural world? Sky Arts attempts to answer these and other questions in this enlightening and entertaining documentary on the emerging new face of London architecture.

Do you have your own view on the Gherkin? Why not start a discussion here?

From the all too frequent depictions of Death in Renaissance paintings to Damien Hirst’s diamond encrusted effort, the skull features heavily in art of all forms. Tim Burton loves ‘em (especially in his video for The Killers’ ‘Bones’), and Peter Callesen’s A4 paper cut out pieces are filled with imagery of skeletons, coffins and death (see www.petercallesen.com). But why the continued use of this imagery? Obviously in the days of yore, having a skull in the painting symbolised that the subject was due to shuffle off this mortal coil, or had already. Symbolism then was like an episode of Catchphrase….say what you see. Skulls pop up everywhere and are used to suggest many different emotions: the palpable danger of the Jolly Roger; the suggestion that death comes to us all in Holbein’s anamorphic ‘The Ambassadors’; reminiscences of better, youthful times in Hamlet, the list could go on.But with the new digital age, the use of skulls in art seems too easy, a little passé, yet it continues unabated. Admittedly, the shape and form of a skull can be a beautiful thing, evoking images of the human stripped bare, devoid of the protective layers of skin and flesh. In modern day art, skulls are used, in ArtsWom’s opinion to signify many things; the futility of life (you work, you pay taxes, you die), rebellion (that means you, skater boi) and as a reminder that the Grim Reaper is waiting. Hirst’s diamond skull, for example, is purely about death, especially given the controversy about blood diamonds coming from
Africa. This gives the piece a further, more sinister aspect, and causes the observer to think about the piece in an altogether different light.

Given that Hirst’s latest offering could have actually created some real life skulls of its own, maybe now is the time to end this obsession in art and concentrate on something less morbid, like fluffy bunnies. Or maybe the provocative nature of the use of skulls is the entire point, creating conversation and controversy. Isn’t that what art is all about?

LEGO uber-genius Andrew Lipson is usually guaranteed to blow your mind with his creations (remember his Spectrum ZX–esque reproduction of Rodin’s Thinker?), but he has taken it one step further with his latest work.

Escher’s Relativity has long graced the poster-clad walls of students and arty types, being the predecessor to the digitally produced mind bending dolphins (does anyone actually see flying porpoises after staring at one of those for 20 minutes?) The ‘woah, dude’ factor of the black and white original has never lost its appeal even in these fast-paced technicolor days, but now it has been enhanced with some pain-staking attention to detail - and little men with no hair.

Lipson is at pains to point out to the Lego aficionados amongst us that he is especially proud of the Studs Not On Top (SNOT) technique, which is designed to further deceive the eye. We all know the studs point vertically, so our perceptions of depth and direction are thrown, maybe even more than by the original image.

Just the photo alone took self confessed ‘professional nerd’ Lipson (and co-creator Daniel Shiu) a whole evening to light and find the correct camera position to match the original drawing (see www.andrewlipson.com for more insights). But was it really worth all that time and effort? Is this art? As a quirky one-off, it has legs. An exhibition of work like this? Maybe - in a Greenwich Village gallery where trendies could discuss the relative merits of the youthful playfulness of the piece. Maybe that’s all it is meant to be, Lipson stresses that his pieces do not go on sale, and are usually disassembled after completion, but ArtsWom reckons there might be a market for this type of thing…somewhere out there.

This clever chap promises more in the Escher series (which already includes ‘Balcony’, ‘Belvedere’, ‘Ascending and Descending’ and ‘Waterfall’), so be prepared to suspend your disbelief and bend your mind further in the future. We at ArtsWom will certainly be looking out for the next addition to the collection, and will follow the career path of Lipson to see if money really can be made from this most interesting of hobbies. Which reminds us to look in the loft for that big box of square bricks…

Clive James once occupied prime position on mainstream television as a respected host and interviewer of the stars. Tiring of the unnatural surroundings when interviewing his guests under studio conditions, Australia’s most successful critic began inviting his celebrity friends back to his home to engage in more natural conversation in his ‘library’ - resulting in the popular Clive James Talking in the Library series showing on Sky Arts.

Whether this is a noble example of a man reaching the heights of fame and opting to steer away from the spotlight for the
sake of his craft, or the actions of someone who really can’t be bothered to leave his house – it is not for ArtsWom to decide.

Regardless, Clive James has the charismatic clout to attract some quality guests and the relaxed conditions make the interviews a refreshingly intimate affair and make for some revealing quotes. At great risk to our lives (and with the tragic loss of five junior members of the ArtsWom team) we were able to procure some transcripts from the Sky Arts vaults detailing his two upcoming shows; the first with actress Emma Thompson being shown tomorrow and the second (airing next week) with all-round English gent, Stephen Fry.

Below are some chosen extracts from the shows:

Emma Thompson – Wed 05 Sep 2007 7:30PM - 8:00PM

On Everyone wanting to make movies:
The only reason why there’s more popular films being made right now is that there’s so many more movies being made. I look at newspapers and think about what’s coming out next week and think ‘There’s so many movies. There’s so many….’ Everybody wants to make movies. And how many people want to make movies because there’s actually something to say? I think that part of the celebrity culture and the fascination with that world has produced a whole bunch of people who want to make movies because they want to make movies, not because there’s something that they desperately need to …you know, someone like Todd Solondz, have you seen his stuff – Happiness and Welcome to the Dollhouse? Extraordinary things that he needed to say about life in New Jersey. He writes about particular neuroses and deviants in NJ and it’s something that he’s….he’s on my mind right now as he’s asked me to do a film that I can’t do because I can’t get away right now, and I thought, he’s one of the rare film directors that I’ve worked with that need to get something onto the screen.

On Depression:
ET: Melancholy is a great motor. And if I am depressed, and there’s one area of my mind that if we’re talking about patches of your mind where you keep things, and I don’t know if you ever suffer from depression but I do sometimes and have had to take medication for it, that kind of depression, but the one part of my mind that doesn’t ever get depressed, doesn’t ever enter into that world, is the creative part. Even though it can be struggling with something- I’m writing the next Nanny McPhee right now and I couldn’t think of the ending and for two days I just paced but I wasn’t miserable at all. The bit of me that was miserable was another part altogether. Just the doing bit, the bit that said I’ve got to get this done now, now, now. That bit. Which is quite different to the creative bit. The creative bit is much more connected to your subconscious, which is a part of your mind that works at a slower, glacial level so you do have to give it some time so during that pacing I thought ‘No it’s ok, it will arrive in it’s own good time’ and sure enough it did.

On Charity:
“What is you’re favourite charity?” That is my least favourite question. What do you mean, what’s my favourite thing that’s so awful I have to give money away and do things about it? What’s my favourite evil in the world that makes me so crazed that I have to leave my family? SHUT UP! What are you talking about? This is a time when we all have to engage with the problems. We can’t talk about things in that way, it’s just so reductive

Stephen Fry - Wed 12 Sep 2007 7:30PM - 8:00PM

On attending Cambridge University:
I would say that if I had not got into Cambridge and had gone to another university that my view of the kind of people that went to Oxford & Cambridge would be coloured to say the least. I mean, I would probably use the “W” word a lot. ….I would see it as a cosy-nostra, as it’s been called, or the Cambridge Mafia. All I can say is that you feel the opposite at the time. I would go into the Footlight’s Club room and see up on the wall pictures of John Cleese, Peter Cook, yourself [Clive James], Germaine Greer….and see this vast pantheon of great comic talent and think, ‘well, the door has shut after them. Nothing’s going to happen again’. And when you’re at Cambridge the first thing you hear is ‘Apparently the footlight’s crap this year’.

On being an old-fashioned British gent:
CJ: British society is changing. The gent has lost his force and you, in many ways, epitomise the gent. You’re a rogue gent.

SF: Indeed I am. I am shamefully a member of exclusive clubs, so exclusive that many people have not heard of them. And one club that I’m a member of all the club servants are called Charles because the club is hundreds of year’s old and members have never bothered to learn their names.

On Hugh Laurie’s success in America:
CJ: Incidentally I would be jealous of Hugh Laurie’s salary but on the other hand, one of the conditions of giving him that much money is that they never give him any time to spend it.

SF: You’re so right and I’m not jealous of him but I’m so proud of him. I love him, I mean he’s my best friend and I’m so thrilled he’s finally being recognised as the wonderful actor I always knew he was.

CJ: But the price is for him to work 7 days per week.

SF: Yes. I’ve seen him. The TV thing that I did [Bones] was on the TV set next door to his on the Fox lot in LA and I’ve stayed at his apartment many times and it’s just destroying him….They [Fox] kindly asked me if I would like to do a whole series of this thing [Bones] that I just guested on….and I’m not saying I would have reached anything near the heights that Hugh did anyway, partly because I’m nowhere near as good looking as Hugh aside from his talent let’s be honest, but I’ve just seen what it’s done to him. And I’m not giving gossip away about it having done something terrible to him by any means but I’ve seen how hard the work is. He’s far too gracious to complain about it, because you can’t complain when they throw that much money at you after all.

For more information or to discuss these shows, visit the Sky Arts website – clicking here for the Emma Thompson interview and here for Stephen Fry.

The title of this article is phrased as a question, perhaps due to ArtsWom inability to grasp all that is contained within the work of Espira, who travelled to our fair shores via the waters of ‘who killed bambi?’

As far as we are aware (thanks to ropey web based translators and phrases half-remembered from long ago school eras), Espira is Spanish for a concept related to spires, whorls and spirals. What’s in a name? Often more than you think, but here it holds more interest as our, admittedly relatively sparse knowledge of spirals is that nature reproduces them - infinitely. This has led some of the more speculative types to see them as intrinsically tied to the biggest of all biggies, the meaning of life.

Maybe, maybe not? Here’s what ArtsWom does know. The work of Espira sucks you in - eyeballs first with the mind closely behind. In fact so close, it stamps vindictively all over your optical nerve. The website refers to the work as a mix of uniform, costume and fashion with the mundane of modern life. The mundane, the everyday in these images is meat, guns and Tesco. Our response is at once both befuddlement and praise. We want to react, but are unsure of what form said reaction should take… this article? Inefficient - though a start at least.

Take yourself to the Espira MySpace and get immersed in the visuals of a tricky, yet undoubtedly talented individual.

Here is a Thursday morning WomBit, courtesy of the industrial design supersite that is Core77. ArtsWom clapped weary, approaching-the-end-of-the-week eyes on this rocking chair and immediately wanted to throw its collective posterior in its direction.

Alright, the Rocking Wheel Chair designed by Mathias Koehler may not look the most comfy seat in IKEA, but is desirable? You bet. What could be better than rocking around on design perfection making use of that nifty built in light to read Alicia’s Gift by Jessica Duchen.

Drawn is often full of glorious content from gifted individuals and this recent post featuring the art of Kymia Nawabi is a prime example.

A quick wander through her CV demonstrates that Kymia is an artist on the path to surpassing her potential. Then you look at her drawings and sculpture and in the words of GetUnderground realise that Kymia is a “majorly talented delight bomb.” Her creations are uncomfortable to look at and ArtsWom means that as a term of appreciation; they appear as the world of Lewis Carrol, but deeply mutated by radioactive waste and a heavy sense of disassociation.

A reactionary article felt like the order of the day after ArtsWom wiggled its eye down ‘I want Francis Bacon on my Xbox’ by Ned Beauman which was posted on The Guardian art blog.

The slug line to Beauman’s article is ‘Computer games could be so much classier if they drew on more fine art for their graphics.’ Is there a need for computer games to become ‘much classier’? ArtsWom is clearly only one voice in the demographic, but feels that when acting as Kratos, the fearless Spartan warrior enslaved by Ares and given the Blades of Chaos fused to his fore arms so as to separate foes bodies from their heads in a glorious cascade of claret, that one is, at the very least, classical. Remember, SCEA’s God of War is based on Greek mythology.

Beauman mentions the fateful trap of the video game market and then does not explain how one falls into it. The tired clichés of Giger artwork in a virtual setting is at best a concept and at worst an assumption that regardless, does linger on the edges of the point. Computer games are not about their artwork. A consumer buying a videogame for the graphics is like a fine art collector buying a Bacon for the frame it is in.

Sure, ArtsWom would love to see more fine art busting blocks and collecting rings, but only ever as a considered setting or inspiration to outstanding game play. Addictive, simple, replay-ability is the key and if fine art in any shape or form can push this then the world will become a better place. If not, then fine art is just another façade to cover the cracks of unoriginality that exist in a market place that has a tendency to eat the young, gifted and different.

Cool Hunting’s latest post is on a Richard Mille timepiece that is revolutionary.

ArtsWom has always had a romantic vision of being a watchmaker, sat in inside a dusty, wooden panelled shop on a cobbled street in a Dickensian world, surrounded by cogs smaller than a pinhead. Crafting with aging yet deceptively quick and supple hands the best pocket watches in all of London town. After looking at Planetarium Tellurium we were clearly being small minded!

Horology is clearly the science of kings, kings of the universe in fact. The Planetarium Tellurium is built from titanium, steel, brass, gold, silver and red corundum and was the result of synapsical super activity on behalf of Stephen Forsey. For some more images of this remarkable object, head to The Watchismo Times.

Rarely if ever do visitors come away disappointed from who killed bambi? They saw the relevance to the mission statement behind their name of this particular photograph taken from Amy Stein’s Women and Guns series and gave it an airing on their site.

Impressed by the image ArtsWom dipped its little piggys into the Stein portfolio to test the temperature; it was pleasantly warm with a refreshingly chilly current surfacing unexpectedly and sporadically. It’s above and occasionally beyond what you’d expect of an internationally exhibited artist whose work has pushed aside the filler in Photo District News, ARTnews, Vanity Fair Italia, Smithsonian Magazine and The Washington Post. ArtsWom is serious, her work is that good.

Below are a couple of our favourites from the 30 or so stills on her site, one from Halloween in Harlem and a further image from Women and Guns.

Thank you TypeNow.net for posting an incredible 305 TV and film-related fonts (with a couple of brands sneaking their way in too). Finally, we can create our very own Airwolf posters!

The urge of the blue link can be resisted no longer! Click it and get these freakishly fantastic fonts!

This little gem has popped up in a couple of venues, most notably we make money not art and New Art, so ArtsWom decided to join in. There’s something bizarrely intriguing about frogs kitted out for aeronautic activity.

We have discovered more art in the way of ‘most petulant yet amusing blog comment’ in reaction to the post on we make money not art. ‘Not a frog’s’ reaction is included in full after this dash – “Is that a real frog? Bullshit.. You catch a frog and put him in that contraption and wallah art! Why don’t you hang the artists by his testicles that are attached to a giant circle called ‘Circle of Life’. More art! Huh?”

For more images head to Mi-Mi Moscow’s MySpace.

If ArtsWom were to wear a boiler suit, it would be one crafted from woven steel. And who would tailor our futuristic invinci-overalls? Thomas Heatherwick of course. Sadly Heatherwick has not stitched with a blowtorch an impenetrable outfit for our own needs; instead he has created a rather fetching façade for the boiler house at Guy’s Hospital in London.

Coming in via Mooch and written about in detail at dezeen, Boiler Suit is a warped casing of woven stainless steel braid. As part of a £2 million revitalisation for the area, Heatherwick’s encasing for the hospitals power source is illuminated at night creating a focus of smooth lines with industrial edges.

Alistair Gourlay is Capital Development Manager for Guy’s and St. Thomas’s NHS Foundation Trust and commented on the project, “I am pleased that our patients are now greeted by a much more welcoming environment [and] feedback we have received so far has been very positive.” Judging by the pictures it’s no surprise, the building looks almost as good as futuristic invinci-overalls.