Antony Gormley

OUCH! This has got to hurt. Jonathan Jones has obviously seen the new Gormley Exhibition at the White Cube, and he really, really does not like what he has seen. This is a scything, four paragraph demolition of Gormley's career, as a whole. I agree in essence, but specific critical analysis is needed to justify a public hanging like this.
Bob Dylan has made some dreadful records, but they do not detract from the genius of his others.

Kingbird Design

Making a outdoor kitchen is my upcoming spring project, but I just started looking into what is possible, and came across this from Kingbird Design. Amazing.

At the threshold

I have a new blog, .......but don't worry, (as if you were), this one is still trucking on. The new one is niche, very niche, but hey, i like it. The rules are simple; photographs of doors, gateways and thresholds taken by me, posted one a day, thats it. ( I hope) it is of visual interest, but I am also intrigued about what is behind the door, who lives there, what is happening and what is possible. The real seed to this fascination was planted in the old town in Marrakesh, where the ancient battered doors flanking the tiny streets open out into the Riads, the most magical oases beyond.
ostiatim.blogspot.co.uk is the place to find it.

Gabriel Orozco: Asterisms

Plenty of Chance to take a trip to Berlin and catch the amazing Gabriel Orozco show at The Guggenheim, which runs until 13th January.
Environmental comment meets Taxonomic experiment.

Joseph Giovannini

I do not refer back to previous posts very often, my theory is; If you like something, you will bookmark it and check up every now and again. But sometimes i like too. It's interesting to re-visit, to see whether you are wrong, or right, and whether the wheel of taste has rendered an idea as defunct (for the time being).
Anyway, I just revisited Joseph Giovannini, and was blown away all over again. If Frank Gehry, Richard Wilson and Gerrit Rietveld all got drunk, and went mental, this is what it would look like. Amazing stuff.

Fraxinus excelsoir

Lets hope not, but might be worth Looking out for the Common ash before its too late.
I love the description from the Collins Tree guide I have, its technical, but also rich and poetic in places. Very fitting.

Europe (including Britain and Ireland); the Caucaus. Abundant/dominant except on light sands; planted everywhere. the flexible 'ash blonde' timber (used for tool-handles) burns even when green.
Appearance Shape Very often; slender, cleanly curving limbs on a often long bore hole. The silvery shoots may droop then curl up like branches of a chandelier. Festooned frequently in ivy, which the airy crown fails to supress, and affected by 'ash die back' (probably due to environmental stresses): once known to 45m; now rarely to 30m. Bark Pale grey, developing a usually regular network of shallow, criss cross ridges; rarely more like English oak's. Erupting black bacterial cankers disfigure many trees. Shoots Grey. Buds Mitre-shaped, soon sooty-black - other ashes have brown buds. Leaves In opposite pair; 9-13 irregularly serrated leaflets (the side ones stalkless), dull above and white-downy under the lower midrib, on a slightly downy main stalk. The last wild tree into leaf, and one of the first to go bare, fleetingly pale yellow. Flowers Nominally dioecious. Some trees change sex yearly, some carry branches of the wrong sex, some are hermaphrodite, and some produce dual-sex ('perfect') flowers. Fruit Bunched keys ripen biscuit brown.

Patricia Urquiola - 'Crossing'

Treading a path through the forest of new Patricia Urquiola Products is difficult to say the least. There are 60 or so designed in 2012 listed on Architonic alone, and that output is aimed at different markets, so obviously everything cannot hit the mark. But when Urquiola collaborates with the heavyweights it does tend to be very good. And I think 'Crossing', the recent, high concept range for the brilliant Glasitalia, is very much in the right direction. 

Hiatus

Apologies for the break in information, I have been dabbling in Corian, making huge glazed doors, building solid oak staircases, installing period mouldings in my new house and generally feeling tired but satisfied. Will try and get some images of it all up soon.
Anyway, something you should not miss out on, Tom Friedman at Stephen Friedman Gallery until the 10th. Amazing scope here; simple (almost childlike) in appearance, which belies the highly technical nature, and conceptual nuance of the work. And if you cannot make it, there is a good video here, which scans over everything a little, but is still very worth a look.

And looking forward, new Martin Parr work at the Rocket Gallery, on the theme of 'time off', opening on the 29th. (The Lars Wolter Show on at the moment is well worth a nose too.)