Thursday, September 30, 2010
London Design Festival
Oh la la where to begin... 9 days of madness took over London last week! There were new exhibitions to see every day, from Tent London to the Tramshed, and endless parties to attend every night. Free champagne at ever turn (thanks to the handy sponsorship of Veuve Clicquot) and a few celeb sittings for design nerds such as myself. Here are some highlights!
This is Paul Cocksedge's 'Drop,' a magnetic coin-like sculpture that appears to have fallen from the sky onto the Southbank Centre. Everyone was invited to stick their coins to the piece, and many started to create fun designs and sayings.
Audi set up a mechanical octopus of sorts. The futuristic-looking robots could write out in the air messages that the public wrote in. Unfortunately the messages could only be viewed at night, but the robots themselves were a sight to behold.
The Photographer's Gallery set up a table with scraps of magazines and photographs and invited passersby to help create a large collage to be hung in the gallery after the Festival. As you can tell, I'm quite interested in public projects rather than private viewings..
So speaking of private viewings, The Tramshed hosted a press preview for the 'premier destination' of the festival and I somehow got in.. Featuring 25 design brands including Benchmark, Decode, and Autoban, the newly renovated, well, shed, in Hoxton was indeed a great exhibition despite the sense of exclusivity it exuded.
Tent London, set up in Brick Lane's Truman Brewery, was completely overwhelming. I could create a whole blog for it, but instead I would recommend you visit their website. The vuvuzela lamp pictured above is an example of the many witty design ideas I came across.
The LDF was a real treat to be a part of.. More specific posts will follow.
This is Paul Cocksedge's 'Drop,' a magnetic coin-like sculpture that appears to have fallen from the sky onto the Southbank Centre. Everyone was invited to stick their coins to the piece, and many started to create fun designs and sayings.
Audi set up a mechanical octopus of sorts. The futuristic-looking robots could write out in the air messages that the public wrote in. Unfortunately the messages could only be viewed at night, but the robots themselves were a sight to behold.
The Photographer's Gallery set up a table with scraps of magazines and photographs and invited passersby to help create a large collage to be hung in the gallery after the Festival. As you can tell, I'm quite interested in public projects rather than private viewings..
So speaking of private viewings, The Tramshed hosted a press preview for the 'premier destination' of the festival and I somehow got in.. Featuring 25 design brands including Benchmark, Decode, and Autoban, the newly renovated, well, shed, in Hoxton was indeed a great exhibition despite the sense of exclusivity it exuded.
Tent London, set up in Brick Lane's Truman Brewery, was completely overwhelming. I could create a whole blog for it, but instead I would recommend you visit their website. The vuvuzela lamp pictured above is an example of the many witty design ideas I came across.
The LDF was a real treat to be a part of.. More specific posts will follow.
Peggy
A brief on Peggy Guggenheim:
You may know her uncle as the founder of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, however Peggy was also a driving force in the avant-garde movement. After moving to Paris in 1920, she became bff with the likes of Man Ray and Marcel Duchamp. She began to collect and then exhibit little-known artists like Wassily Kandinsky. Following her divorce from the artist Max Ernst, she moved to Venice where she took up a palazzo on the Grand Canal, now the Peggy Guggenheim Collection. She is now buried in the sculpture garden, along with her dogs.
Sunday, September 12, 2010
Aussie invasion
matilda-design.com
Launching at the London Design Festival, Matilda is introducing the UK to 13 of Australia's best designers. Grand opening is the night of September 21, so come check it out!
Gallery on Redchurch Street
50 Redchurch Street, Shoreditch, E2 7DP
September 16 til October 2
Launching at the London Design Festival, Matilda is introducing the UK to 13 of Australia's best designers. Grand opening is the night of September 21, so come check it out!
Gallery on Redchurch Street
50 Redchurch Street, Shoreditch, E2 7DP
September 16 til October 2
'architecture as air: study for château la coste' by junya.ishigami+associates
Look closely...
This is the Golden Lion Award winning project that explores the boundaries between traditional architectural binaries - solid/void, space/structure, transparent/opaque. The Japanese firm installed a structural system made of thin white string, which, despite suffering collapses (rumored to be caused by a cat) is an inspiring exhibit.
Richard Wilson's 20:50 at the Saatchi Gallery
I have never stared so long at an installation piece before. Built in Gallery 13 of the Saatchi, the slick surface appears to be well polished floor reflecting the beams and lines of the ceiling. However, from past experiences I remembered this room as being two storeys tall. Add the smell of oil to the room, and the fact that this is a Richard Wilson, and what do you get? A room literally filled with oil. Ok, not totally filled.. A steel structure covering the span of the room holds about 2" of oil. Nevertheless, the effect is mesmerizing and a must-see if you are in the Sloane Square area.
Jean Nouvel's Serpentine Pavilion
So here is the new pavilion at the Serpentine in Hyde Park. For those of you who aren't familiar with the project, the gallery installs a new pavilion once a year. The previous two years have seen incredible designs by Gehry and SANAA.
Nouvel's bright red structure (reminiscent of his contributions to Parc de la Villette in Paris)is complete with ping pong tables. On the afternoon I visited it, the sight of business men playing ping pong after work in their suits was quite enjoyable.
Friday, September 3, 2010
From England to Italy
The past month has been a complete whirlwind, so I'm not even sure where to start on this long-overdue post.
My first week in London consisted of never ending flat viewings. I saw some of the grimiest places you could ever imagine, all asking a fortune in rent of course. Just as I had lost all hope, I found a room larger than a shower, that didn't have mysterious stains or odors, nor did it have children running around it (no joke, that happened twice). A good flat for a low price is hard/impossible to find here, so I snatched it up asap.
While enduring this debacle, I was staying in a lovely Georgian terrace house in Islington with several wonderful men. I would give you the exact amount, however it seemed to change every night as the place turned into a bit of a youth hostel. Everyone was extremely welcoming and laid back, which helped at the end of all the exhausting days. So thanks guys!
A friend from Montreal arrived about ten days later. We took up a temporary residency in the grand Victorian Hotel Russell in Bloomsbury. Despite a quirky consierge, the hotel proved to be an excellent resting spot after touring all day and drinking too much all night. Our favourite part by far was the mysterious channel that played a black and white image of a man sleeping from about 3am on... One night there were two men in the bed. If anyone can explain what that was all about, I'm dying to know.
On my last evening in London, before setting off to Italy, I dropped all of my belongings into the new flat, took one last look at the city's soggy gray streets, and took in a good two hour sleep before catching our flight. Landing in the sun and heat of Rome while still wearing a sweater and leather jacket, I felt like a bit of a idiot. How could I have forgotten that summer can actually be hot in some countries?! Silly me..
A blog post could never sum up Rome, so I'll just say the city gets better after every visit and is very difficult to leave. I may have gained ten pounds or so and killed a ton of braincells thanks to the abundance of amazing food and wine. But it was all worth it. At the end of every three hour dinner in some street-side osteria, I realized that this is how to enjoy life!
Following Rome, I left on my own to Venice. Never having been there, and being clever enough to not bring a map, I got thoroughly lost my first day and wandered in circles around San Marco for hours. The next day I snuck onto a waterbus and made my way over to the Venice Biennial. I'll post an article on that later..
Following two 8 hour days at the Biennial, I was exhibited out and needed some wine. I met a few people in my hostel, and we set out to find some local nightlife on a Tuesday night. A nearby piazza hosted a tango night, where neighbors put on their best dresses and precariously high heels and tangoed to music blasted from a boombox. Those participating were clearly experienced, and loving every second of it. Between tango songs there would be a pause to switch partners or take a break. In that pause, the 'dj' hilariously decided to play Spice Girls classics. Not sure if they saw the humour in that... After enviously watching these semi-pro dancers, we went off to a small bar down one of those impossibly narrow streets. They served wine in mini glasses for 90c. In London, 90p wine would taste like cat piss, and probably would be just that. But here it was delicious.
The next day, needing a change from all the Titians and Tintorettos, I wandered over to the Peggy Guggenheim Collection. The collection is stunning, obviously, and so complete- she followed the avant-garde movement from beginning to end. Refusing to partake in Pop Art, she stopped collecting once her favourite movements (and artists) died off. Such a kooky figure, she is buried with her dogs in the sculpture garden.
I took the advice of a friend who had lived in Venice and went to Vino Gia Schiavi, a bustling little bistro where locals dined on wine and mouthwatering cicchetti along a quiet canal. I couldn't read the labels for each dish, but I assume it had tuna in it. Or something that tasted like tuna anyway... The setting was perfect, so I sat in a park across the water from it and sketched for a couple of hours. Following some gelato and a long walk along the water, I then went back to the tango piazza and read under a cafe's umbrellas until I had to catch my flight back to freezing London. Standing waiting for my bus at Liverpool Street Station at 2am, shivering, with a trouserless tranny next to me and some drunk tourists making out on the steps behind me, I questioned why I left Italy exactly... I think I could learn to love Burlusconi and his henchmen quite quickly.
My first week in London consisted of never ending flat viewings. I saw some of the grimiest places you could ever imagine, all asking a fortune in rent of course. Just as I had lost all hope, I found a room larger than a shower, that didn't have mysterious stains or odors, nor did it have children running around it (no joke, that happened twice). A good flat for a low price is hard/impossible to find here, so I snatched it up asap.
While enduring this debacle, I was staying in a lovely Georgian terrace house in Islington with several wonderful men. I would give you the exact amount, however it seemed to change every night as the place turned into a bit of a youth hostel. Everyone was extremely welcoming and laid back, which helped at the end of all the exhausting days. So thanks guys!
A friend from Montreal arrived about ten days later. We took up a temporary residency in the grand Victorian Hotel Russell in Bloomsbury. Despite a quirky consierge, the hotel proved to be an excellent resting spot after touring all day and drinking too much all night. Our favourite part by far was the mysterious channel that played a black and white image of a man sleeping from about 3am on... One night there were two men in the bed. If anyone can explain what that was all about, I'm dying to know.
On my last evening in London, before setting off to Italy, I dropped all of my belongings into the new flat, took one last look at the city's soggy gray streets, and took in a good two hour sleep before catching our flight. Landing in the sun and heat of Rome while still wearing a sweater and leather jacket, I felt like a bit of a idiot. How could I have forgotten that summer can actually be hot in some countries?! Silly me..
A blog post could never sum up Rome, so I'll just say the city gets better after every visit and is very difficult to leave. I may have gained ten pounds or so and killed a ton of braincells thanks to the abundance of amazing food and wine. But it was all worth it. At the end of every three hour dinner in some street-side osteria, I realized that this is how to enjoy life!
Following Rome, I left on my own to Venice. Never having been there, and being clever enough to not bring a map, I got thoroughly lost my first day and wandered in circles around San Marco for hours. The next day I snuck onto a waterbus and made my way over to the Venice Biennial. I'll post an article on that later..
Following two 8 hour days at the Biennial, I was exhibited out and needed some wine. I met a few people in my hostel, and we set out to find some local nightlife on a Tuesday night. A nearby piazza hosted a tango night, where neighbors put on their best dresses and precariously high heels and tangoed to music blasted from a boombox. Those participating were clearly experienced, and loving every second of it. Between tango songs there would be a pause to switch partners or take a break. In that pause, the 'dj' hilariously decided to play Spice Girls classics. Not sure if they saw the humour in that... After enviously watching these semi-pro dancers, we went off to a small bar down one of those impossibly narrow streets. They served wine in mini glasses for 90c. In London, 90p wine would taste like cat piss, and probably would be just that. But here it was delicious.
The next day, needing a change from all the Titians and Tintorettos, I wandered over to the Peggy Guggenheim Collection. The collection is stunning, obviously, and so complete- she followed the avant-garde movement from beginning to end. Refusing to partake in Pop Art, she stopped collecting once her favourite movements (and artists) died off. Such a kooky figure, she is buried with her dogs in the sculpture garden.
I took the advice of a friend who had lived in Venice and went to Vino Gia Schiavi, a bustling little bistro where locals dined on wine and mouthwatering cicchetti along a quiet canal. I couldn't read the labels for each dish, but I assume it had tuna in it. Or something that tasted like tuna anyway... The setting was perfect, so I sat in a park across the water from it and sketched for a couple of hours. Following some gelato and a long walk along the water, I then went back to the tango piazza and read under a cafe's umbrellas until I had to catch my flight back to freezing London. Standing waiting for my bus at Liverpool Street Station at 2am, shivering, with a trouserless tranny next to me and some drunk tourists making out on the steps behind me, I questioned why I left Italy exactly... I think I could learn to love Burlusconi and his henchmen quite quickly.
Friday, August 6, 2010
Pre-London Procrastination
Just four days to go before I leave for London, and my room resembles a consignment shop's stock room where all the crap piles up. Nice crap, but still... It's a mess. Nothing makes me want to paint my nails, rearrange my computer's folders, watch hours of SATC reruns or distract myself with any other unproductive activity than the prospect of packing. The only thing worse is unpacking, which is why you might see me wearing the same three pieces of clothing for the first month I'm settling in.
As it turns out, I actually do have more crucial things to worry about than trying to stuff wellies in a suitcase. My very first publication deadline is coming up on Tuesday, and everyone at the mag has been scrambling to pull the issue together. Kind of hard to co-ordinate between Brazilian photographers and London editors while I'm in Toronto... But let's hope you get to read my article on Brasilia in the first issue of ART Magazine this October!
Furthermore, I will be quite homeless as of Wednesday at noon. Thanks to good friends there will be a lovely living room in Islington for me to crash in until I amend this situation, but it would have been nice to be able to 'go home' right after my flight. So other than a severe case of procrastination and feeling a bit nomadic, everything is pretty well organized and the excitement is starting to creep in..
Next post will be from London Town :)
As it turns out, I actually do have more crucial things to worry about than trying to stuff wellies in a suitcase. My very first publication deadline is coming up on Tuesday, and everyone at the mag has been scrambling to pull the issue together. Kind of hard to co-ordinate between Brazilian photographers and London editors while I'm in Toronto... But let's hope you get to read my article on Brasilia in the first issue of ART Magazine this October!
Furthermore, I will be quite homeless as of Wednesday at noon. Thanks to good friends there will be a lovely living room in Islington for me to crash in until I amend this situation, but it would have been nice to be able to 'go home' right after my flight. So other than a severe case of procrastination and feeling a bit nomadic, everything is pretty well organized and the excitement is starting to creep in..
Next post will be from London Town :)
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