Kennel Valley Nature Reserve

Ontwerpduo

Very refreshing to see a really interesting new product. Leona Lamp from Ontwerpduo...
"..is screen printed with a special ink that charges itself throughout the day, and night form the lamp".  When the light goes out you are left with the blue glow of the geometric pattern.

sneak preview

 Just finishing the fitting of this unit. Think Miami and sunshine. More pics soon.

What do artists do all day?

Michael Landy up this time for the BBC show, talking about Art Bin. 

New work

Breathe Architecture

Breathe Architecture

Marc messenger @ Newlyn Art Gallery

Marc Messenger solo show opens this weekend at the Newlyn Art Gallery.  Existed is an epic new installation comprising of over a hundred miniature arrangements, referencing Ikebana to explore themes of time & decay, (and ultimately life and death.)  Truly Beautiful work.
Private view is this Friday, the 17th, and the show runs until 15th november.

Chamber

Chamber is one of, if not the, most exciting design/object based gallery to open in NYC recently! Check.

Nao Matsunaga

Truly exciting and provocative stuff from V&A artist in residence, Nao Matsunaga. Grayson Perry may have embedded ceramics into the fine art arena, but Matsunga pushes the medium into new territory. And you can visit his studio at the museum (on various dates) through September. Go!
"An interest in ceremonial objects and spaces has been at the core of my practice for many years. By their very nature, ritualistic objects and spaces have to transcend the everyday, and I am in interested in how they move into the realm of the unusual and the extraordinary."

Casagrande Laboratory

Some really interesting work from Casagrande Laboratory, from wooden shelters on the beach, to floating saunas and much more, all dealing with one big idea, Freedom.

The Guardian

The online architecture section in the guardian is actually becoming serious and interesting! Pieces on the new Serpentine pavilion, Rem Koolhaas talking about the Venice architecture biennale and an article on rebel architects working in restrictive conditions, plus much, much more.

New Piece

Stephen Friedman Gallery - 4 X 4

"Stephen Friedman Gallery is delighted to present ‘4 x 4', a historical exhibition of art and design which focuses on four key art movements occurring simultaneously across four continents in the 1960s and 1970s. It brings together some of the most innovative and important artists and furniture designers of that period and includes artists previously unseen in the UK.
For this exhibition, the gallery has been divided into four rooms. Each one is set out as an imaginary domestic living space in a collector's house during the 1960s and 1970s in America, Europe, Japan and Latin America. Four artists most closely associated with that time period complete the presentation in each room."
Don't think this is a half baked commercial design enterprise, the roll call is serious, with LeWitt, Nakashima and Ryman featuring, amongst many others. Only runs until the 19th July, so hurry.

Richard Mosse

Last few days to see Richard Mosse at the Photographers gallery. Obviously this image does not do the large scale works justice but its very worth the trip. The feeling in the darkroom seeing these images appear must have been exhilirating.
"Mosse documents a haunting landscape touched by appalling human tragedy in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, where 5.4 million people have died of war related causes since 1998. Shot on discontinued military surveillance film, the resulting imagery registers an invisible spectrum of infrared light, and renders the jungle warzone in disorienting psychedelic hues. At the project’s heart are the points of failure of documentary photography, and its inability to adequately communicate this complex and horrific cycle of violence."

Initial Idea....

.....for a recent brief.

Corbusiers' Maison Dom-ino at 100

To celebrate Corbusiers' Maison Dom-ino turning 100 this year, aaschool have built a 1:1 replica for the Venice Biennale. Its hard to think of this simple design with minimal supports being radical, but it was at the time. Originally proposed as a solution to housing crisis, Maison Dom-ino failed that brief (never being employed), but its impact was, and still is, indisputable. It's principles and ethos still inform every aspect of contemporary design, architecture, and life.
It has been constructed out of engineered wooden components to allow it to be transported and will be travelling to london at some point, so look out!

More Anton Alvarez

I try not to go over the same ground, but Anton Alvarez deserves an update. Alvarez has scaled up his thread wrapping machine and installed it in Gustavsberg Konsthall. From now until mid September he will be using the machine to create large scale objects that shift and evolve in space. Alvarez is still totally experimenting, but at the same time producing work of huge beauty and intelligence.
"By working with my invention I am constantly learning new ways of creating objects using the thread-wrapping technique. I can assemble wood, plastic and metal without using nails, screws or traditional methods of assembly. The object is held together by fine yarn which is covered with glue during the wrapping process. Repeated wrappings create strong, load-bearing joints at the same time that the item being created is covered with a decorative surface of differently coloured yarns”.

Ted Larsen

Some interesting creations by Ted Larsen, with the Constructed Objects Series being most the successful and resolved, the materials having reached the correct state of calmness and poise.
"Introducing alternative and salvage materials to my own formally driven abstract sculpture, I hope to bring purist shapes and surfaces back down to earth.  I quest for new materials, "non-art materials" to create my work.  The work is based on a post-meduim studio practice.  I am constructing bricolage works in order to re-purpose the materials and re-identify their meanings: to re-contextualize and re-label the idea of Ready-mades.  It is my on-going experimentation with contexts, hybrids, and scale."

Spindrift by BEEP Studio

Spindrift by BEEP Studio formed part of the recent Havelock Walk Open studios.
BEEP, Fronted by Ed Hollyway, whose open, highly intellectual approach allows the work to exist in both the art and architecture worlds simultaneously. Coupled with Hollyway is Peter Ayres, who has 8 years experience working with Thomas Heatherwick, so although BEEP is fresh in its conception, expect uncompromising and serious work coming very soon. Watch out!

Ecology of Colour/Studio Weave

"....the timber-clad structure, by Studio Weave, is an outdoor classroom, dyeing workshop, art studio, bird-watching hide, tree house and park shelter all rolled into one".

Nils Frahm

A sublime performance from Nils Frahm here, treading the line between contemporary classical and electronic music. The most important thing with Frahm is the energy. His massive physical exertion is channelled into the most precise and detailed contact with the instruments, producing work of astonishing emotion and resonance. The sky is limit for Frahm, simply incredible.

Studio Formafantasma

Gallery Libby Sellers continue to exhibit works of the utmost quality and refinement, with the new collection from Studio Formafantasma......
"....an investigation into the culture of lava in the Mount Etna and Stromboli regions of Sicily, two of the last active volcanoes in Europe. 

Formafantasma questions the link between tradition and local culture and the relationship between objects and the idea of cultural heritage. De Natura Fossilium is a project that refuses to accept locality as touristic entertainment. Instead, the work of Formafantasma is a different expedition in which the landscape is not passively contemplated but restlessly sampled, melted, blown, woven, cast and milled. From the more familiar use of basalt stone to their extreme experiments with lava in the production of glass and the use of volcanic fibers for textile, Formafantasma’s explorations and the resulting objects realise the full potential of the lava as a material for design."

Josef Albers

Very unusual exhibition opening today featuring black and white works from the (colour theorist) Josef Albers. Full gamit of thinking here from the naive triple clef works, to photographic inspiration taken at Mexican ruins,  to optical experiments of line and form. Even including B&W studies for the seminal series, Homage to the square. The Waddington Custot gallery have all the works on the website so you can have a good look even if you cannot make it to the show. Serious, brilliant stuff.

Patatap

Little fun post, give Patatap a try in your lunch hour. Some really nice noises on here.

Alternative Tokyo

Eschewing the normal Tokyo holiday snaps of High Rise Neon brilliantness, I start my Tokyo round up with alternative, tiny dwellings and decaying structures dotted around this amazing city.

Visit unbindingthebook to enter your proposal (by May 16th)

Comms Bureau

Live DJ sets from designers, artists and makers from the Pick Me Up Exhibition at Somerset House  playing on the Comms Bureau site.

Tirunamavalai

Some beautiful images of dwellings in Tirunamavalai from the recent AD.