Lab Craft

One for all of you way out west. Lab Craft has just opened at the very cool Oriel Myrddin Gallery in Carmarthen. Just the one press image so I cannot vouch for the work....but.....with Tord Boontje and Nina Tolstrup among the artists, it is certainly not going to be shabby.
"..lab craft explores the use of technology as an extension to the capabilities of the human hand".

Adam Caruso

Calling all students

Amazing and brilliant opportunity for 16-18 year olds. Design a piece of supersized artwork to be displayed on billboards all around the country.

Patrick Mifsud

Sometimes I fear I can hear distant screams from you...'why so much fine art?'....I really hope not, as its all so relevant - its about space; positive, negative and how we can affect it.
Patrick Mifsud deals with space. Often reacting to a specific site, Mifsud manipulates the environment through seemingly simple arrangements of things. The result is sometimes truly beautiful, but can also be a quite disarming, (even referencing a crime scene a times). There are hidden narratives and stories amongst the arrangements, and the more I look, the better and more interesting it becomes. Simply wonderful.
Mifsud is currently showing at the Marsden Woo Gallery.

Philip Malouin

Apologies, a bit late with this one, as Philip Malouins' show at Next Level Galerie has finished. Still well worth a retrospective look. The brass and concrete material combination sounds wrong, is totally unexpected, but really sings. It almost has an ecclesiastical feel to it,  the hard concrete being an altar or tombstone set against the radiant, chalice like metal. Then there is the scale issue, how big are they? they could be 30cm or 30metres tall, and would still look amazing. What I also like is the way has Malouin has conducted a proper investigation into an idea. It is so easy to show too many concepts in a small exhibition, but here everything demonstrates a high level of critique, selection and refinement. Loads of other goodness on his site too.

Eleonore Nalet

That blogger picture bug has reared its head again so no images at the moment.
But check out Serpentine, a very interesting object by Eleonore Nalet. Amazing how such a simple, plain looking frame can become something very opulent and welcoming.

Starn Studio

Thanks for the nudge about these guys Stevie. There is a brilliant little video that captures the Starns 2010 Metropolitan Museum of Art installation here.

Clemence Sellies

An huge amount of work to look through from Clemence Sellies. It may all be a little bit much for a monday morning, as a lot is highly conceptual and not straight foward. But if so, just scroll through the (very nice) image collection here.

Cave of Forgotten Dreams

I cannot recommend Cave of Forgotten Dreams highly enough. Werner Herzog films can sometimes be difficult (to say the least), but this is special. It focuses on the Chauvet caves where there are perfectly preserved paintings from around 30,000 years ago. Interest here on many epic levels; a window into ancient mans' existence in a rich and unruly land, geological wonderment, but also just sheer appreciation of the talent of these artists. Awesome. (Lovefilm link here)

SamiKallio Studio

Different is not always good, but SamiKallio's different is. Its hard to explain, but the detailing on all the work is just not what you would expect it to be like. Surprising, intricate, beautiful, and what a great philosophy too....
..."We have the ambition to manufacture furniture with a guaranteed emotional and technical durability of 300 years."

Splinterbike

'SplinterBike'  - documentary taster from TopBox Media on Vimeo.

Bit if a fun post for a Saturday morning. I was wondering how the Splinterbike project was coming along, and sure enough, they have done it. The aim was to build a 100% wooden bicycle, absolutely no metal components. All right, its not that pretty, fast, comfortable or serious, but fair play, I am sure it was not easy. (And its raising money for the amazing charity, Shelterbox).

Kinetica Art Fair

The Kinetica Art Fair is simply not long on for long enough. It opens today and closes on the weekend, so don't ponder. Get down there to see some brilliant weirdness, like Alexander Bercherts' Hoover tubes.

stitching concrete

Considreing the cement industry is the second largest CO2 emitting industry behind power generation, I am not sure whether I should be championing something else made of concrete...but....Concrete canvas is just incredible.
It's a fabric impregnated with cement which can be stretched and manipulated to make the required form. Once sprayed with water, it activates the cement which sets hard in 12 hours. The possibilites are massive, from emergency shelters and landscape control to (the probable reason it was developed) war zone environments.
Anyway, enough of the bad side, Florian Schmids' stitching concrete stools are wonderful things.
That colourful naive stitching seemingly holding the loose fabric together. It could almost be felt, something by Joseph Bueys, (I think he would have loved using this stuff). But its rock hard, how does it feel to sit on one of these? what colour does it go in rain? (it's concrete, it's fine outside), how heavy are they? Very interesting and thought provoking objects.

A1 Architects

Working with Lucian

A lovely and gentle insight into the world of Freud (here), including this wonderful image of Hockney and the artist.

The Guardian

Nice little mention in yesterdays Guardian magazine, (and online here), for my 'CutCorner' coffee table.

Patrick Stevenson Keating

Have not had a chance to fully look into Keatings work, I think it is going to take me some time to figure out the quasi physics vs lo fi experimental object investigations.... but i like it.

Just for the record, there is obviously nothing wrong with having a job in an office, (a lot of us maker types have an insane fear of it, thats all.)

Seem to find myself thinking about my old burner in the last workshop a lot at the moment.
Respect to everyone beavering away in frigid workshops. Get those long johns on, the thermos filled, and banish those yearly thoughts of getting a job in an office.

SCP

Last few days of the SCP winter sale. A few decent buys to be had here, with end of line and ex demo stuff. Matthew Hilton's Compass table is one.

Kynance Cove

Came across this strange looking creature down at Kynance Cove over the weekend. Starting from the bottom it is really nice detailed oak bench, using curves, pegged through tenons and wany edge planks. But as it rises the back turns into a panelled affair and then at the top, all the boards have been left at (sort of) ramdon height. Just plain odd.