Steilneset Memorial, Peter Zumthor & Louise Bourgeois
The Steilneset Memorial is composed of two pieces- one completely by Peter Zumthor, the other an exhibit by the late Louise Bourgeois (1911-2010), within a structure by Zumthor, the Steilneset Memorial in Vardø, Norway is a tribute to the dark, early 17th century and it’s witch hunts. In total, 135 individuals were indicted for the crime of sorcery (it’s never as much fun in the real world), of which 91 were convicted. The Zumthor structure is a suspended fabric cocoon, hung within a pine scaffolding. Within, a long hallway is host to 91 hanging lightbulbs behind 91 windows, paying homage to the needlessly lost souls. More images here on Dezeen
Serpentine Gallery Pavilion: Herzog and De Meuron & Ai Weiwei
The Chinese artist Ai Weiwei has collaborated with Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron, designers of the Tate Modern, to create this year's summer pavilion at London's Serpentine Gallery. A thin steel tank pond provides a roof for a conceptual archaeological dig of previous summer pavilions comprising cork ramps, cork flooring and cork seats. The smell must be incredible! Ai Weiwei, Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron
Marina Abramovic and Ulay
Marina Abramovic and Ulay started an intense love story in the 70s, performing art out of the van they lived in. When they felt the relationship had run its course, they decided to walk the Great Wall of China, each from one end, meeting for one last big hug in the middle and never seeing each other again. At her 2010 MoMa retrospective Marina performed ‘The Artist Is Present’ as part of the show, where she shared a minute of silence with each stranger who sat in front of her. Ulay arrived without her knowing and this is what happened.
Window washing, Vanessa van Dam
I came across this unrealized piece by Artist Vanessa van Dam’s. It's a proposal for a window washing installation at the Pharos Office Tower near Amsterdam. It offers a critique on the anonymous glass office building, exploring the relationship between architecture and maintenance. Van Dam proposed the installation of 85 industrial-sized window wipers typically found on airplanes and lighthouses. This is very intriguing as maintenance (a desire to maintain "newness") is an obsession in Australia. With a movement towards a mechanized environment, I can imagine a city where the machines, apparatuses, materials, and techniques of maintenance become part of the image of the city.
Roden Crater, James Turrell
James Turrell is interviewed on a journey through the Arizona desert to his site specific work at Roden Crater. Really extraordinary. A disused crater is turned into a massive light art project, partly funded by the Guggenheim (40 million) . What I like the most about this work is the way it mediates landscape, phenomenological and cultural experience. There's a small piece at the beginning about the Goldstein "skyscraper"- purpose built room for sky/light experience. see the video here.
Thomas Heatherwick talks to an Audience
Architect and designer Thomas Heatherwick talks to an audience about his work and inspiration – extraordinary. Have a look at the kissing bridge about 4.5 min in. The studio's work draws on ideas gleaned from art, film and popular culture, creating work with strong materiality and intrigue. Thomas comes from a background of "crafting" small objects and uses this as a starting point for the making of large buildings. The image to the right shows the British Pavilion at Expo 2010.
Lee Ufan, Stones Cushions and Light
Japanese (and European) based, Korean minimalist artist Lee Ufan talks about the Mono-ha movement of the late 60s.."We used manufactured materials, such as glass, sheet metal or electricity, combined with natural materials, such as dirt, rocks and water. I use the Japanese word chutohampa to describe it, which means unresolved, incomplete or not polished. So you’re neither here nor there; it’s the meeting of the two – oneself and one’s interaction with these materials, both industrial and natural."Relatum,1970, (pictured) combining stones, cushions and lights, installation view at the Pinar Gallery, Tokyo.
Olfur Eliasson façade for Harpa Reykjavik Concert Hall
An Interview With Olafur Eliasson, On Crossing Between Art And Architecture: "The thing is, I think that our relationship with natural light is cultural, one could make the mistake, as many modern architects have done, to think of natural light as something of essentialistic or universal qualities. Of course, I think natural lights are full of incredible qualities, but you have to be careful of making rules on behalf of others with regards of how to make relevance of natural light. I think this was one of the great modern mistakes. So what I’m interested in when using artificial light in my work is the potential of singularity in the experience, and based on that, I do think that one can, it’s a lot of ideas about collectivity as well, but I do think that our relationship to natural light is artificial, it is cultural, it is not something we are born with. This is why people in Iceland have a different relationship to light than people in Sicily...." more
Gregor Schneider, 21 Beach cells, Bondi
Gregor Schneider's 2007 installation at Bondi Beach where he installs 21 beach cells, resembling enclosures at Guantanamo Bay. People occupy these cells and go about their daily activity at the beach. See the video. The connection is truly captivating. I really like the casualness of beach life and its oblivion to the rigorous, interventionist construct.
Andreas Gursky, 99 cents
Instead of using the camera to establish parallel lines Gursky emphasizes parallel lines as a compositional element (digitally). What interests me is the way he use the medium of photography in essentially the same manner as the rationalization process of assembly line work that is a condition of modern architecture and technology.
Richard Serra, One Ton Prop
In Richard Serra's "One Ton Prop" four lead plates each 250 Kilos are propping each other up. Gravity itself is the structural principle. The existence of sculpture here relies on an unstable balance, not the illusion of balance, like what you get in a composition, but actual balance. There is a coincidence between the "representing" and the "represented" element. This idea was once a quality that was natural to Architecture. Herzog and De Mouran explored this in some of their earlier work, particularly in some of their warehouses- see Ricola Warehouse in Laufan .
Gary Hill
Video installation at MOMA where the camera is positioned on parts of the artist's naked body and then displayed on 16 monitors of different sizes. Each monitor is stripped of it's casing (making it also naked). On one monitor Hill's ear and foot lie side by side. I feel an affinity with this way of deconstructing and reconfiguring. In the Flinders House and the Clifton Hill House I use a single tree, slice its parts to make the veneer and then unwrapped in its entirety to represent the whole again.
Cate Consandine
My partner Cate Consandine is an installation artist who has been exploring the poetics of desire, as played out between the body and the architecture of cinema. Her work employs spatial intervention, action, and the specific placement of objects to crystalise edges that connect the accoutrement of desire to felt experience.
