Wolgang & Nouvel

Time for a little review of the Wolfgang Tillmans exhibition and Jean Nouvel Pavillion at the Serpentine which i recently mentioned. Starting with the newest piece first, Jean Nouvel, as i feel time is an important aspect. There are strict rules with the Summer Pavillion, but the main one is that the chosen architect is informed in January in the year of exhibition. That's not six months to figure out how to make and complete the winning design, its six months to Design the winning design, make and complete the structure. Some of my jobs take longer then that, and it may only be a kitchen! So hard and fast it is, with a towering leaning red shard, a beacon in a dry, yellowing Hyde Park, and i think it really works to start with. The enormous layered awnings, in red again, and which make up the main space house the cafe and seating, with events in the evening. But as you looks closely its starts to become an exercise in buying as many  matching red bits of furniture and materials as possible to fill the space. Red chairs, Red Twinwall, Red Glass blocks, Red table tennis tables (i want one), Red coffee makers etc that are not all exactly the same colour but not different enough either. I don't think it bad by any means, but it feels as though there was not quite enough time to get it right.

The Wolgang Tillmans show in the Gallery is an 20 year investigation of photograhy, and it shows, and it seriously works. It seems very simple, they are photograhs about surface or texture, narrative, or colour studies. But the colour studies do not look like images anymore as they have been folded in places, now resembling bent sheets of metal. The landscape photograhs look like paintings, there is small image of a mountain and glacier that appears more like a still life of  sinewy steak, or even a heart. There is technical brilliance which left me in awe, pushing the process of photograhy forward whilst elevating the mediums' artistic vocabulary. It has everything, in all the right places, in the right quantities, but still leaves you wanting more. I highly recommend.

Cooperage Collection

Really like Fontenay's Cooperage collection. Recycled old wine crates re-purposed into flooring. However, there is a major continental divide with how this product is perceived. Fontenay US website markets the products to people who are interested in collecting and drinking wine, which obviously works and is fully valid. But I see this as a very different animal in the UK. There is the recycled element which appeals to a huge audience, but i also see this working brilliantly in an urban environment. Its all about the material, Crates and Barrels, objects that have travelled, been off loaded into warehouses, thrown around, stolen, found, stolen again, then eventually drunk. The materials tell a story, and anything that does that has a massive audience.

Similar, but different. I remember drinking in a pub some years ago at the bottom of Caledonian Rd which had an old School Gym floor, randomly relaid in the bar. The court markings, blue tape for tennis, red for basketball, etc, etc were obviously all mixed up, so the end result was this Maple floor with squares of different colours dotted around evrerywhere. Brilliant.

Silly Season

Sorry for the long absence, a crazy few weeks of all sorts of brilliant stuff.

Firstly, more filming with Grand Designs, installing an oak staircase. This counts for the lack of recent workshop action updates too as its seems foolish to give it all away before the show airs. But, its a big project, including the staircase, a home office, low slung lounge units/benches and much more, so watch this space for more details.

I know i have said before that holiday snaps feel a bit suspect here, but i do feature a lot of photograhy on the blog and inspired by seeing the Wolfgang Tillmans and Nouvel Pavillion at the Serpentine Gallery yesterday, will try and explain why i think they are all critically valid.

A friend, digitoli captures a super relaxed Cornish wedding. I don't think these shots would look out of place on the sartorialist blog. Its also interesting how large celebrations also foster moments of insular contemplation and internal bliss. Oli was also recently involved with this 1.3 gigapixel photo. Zoom in, its quite amazing.

Please Click on images to enlarge.

And Julien Millet is behind the lens at a huge celebration (french weddings go on All night) in the Loire Valley.
I find this Hyper real image very magical, its like a stage set. The woman reading the seating plan, the steps to the right, a tiny lit doorway, the church tower in the background to the sculpture in the fore, its full of questions and drama.

In total contrast, the total honesty in this image, as spontaneously, and en masse, most of the stylish party just stand on chairs and start swinging their napkin around their head. Why? I have no idea, but its the most fun i have ever seen had (and had) with a napkin, and this captures the energy of it perfectly.

(btw, if you are going to see the shows at the Serpentine Gallery, take your bathers and go for a swim in the Lido. Yes, its a little slimy underfoot, but you will never feel such isolation and freedom in the middle of London, on a humid summers day.)

Lubetkin Prize

I have mentioned this building by Thomas Heatherwick before, but its well worth another gander as its just picked up the Lubetkin Prize. Its really not like a building, more a sculpture, but its overall form is so simple; its a cube with rounded corners. Its the external treatment which gives it its magic. I can see why its been dubbed the 'Dandelion' but i get the feeling that this rendering was a bit of a punt, design wise. I am not suggesting its a fluke in any way, Heatherwick knew this was going to be special, but i am not sure they knew exactly how it would turn out. How can you accurately predict or imagine how 60,000, 7.5 metre long acrylic strands are going to look? Hang? React to light and weather? What i am saying is that it is a suprising structure, and maybe the designer was a tiny bit suprised by its reality too, but in a very very good way.