Architecture, Art and Design in London...
A summer week in London with so much to see and do...and not do:))
Photo: arcspace
Did you know you are caught on camera an average of 400 times a day in London? This dataveillance is the highest rate of surveillance anywhere in the world... They know who you are and they know where you are hiding!
Photo: ?????
That in mind I headed straight for Trafalgar Square so see Antony Gormley’s temporary artwork One & Other where each participant is live on webcam . Every hour, 24 hours a day for 100 days, a different person take their place on the Fourth Plinth. Participants can use their time on the Plinth as they like - to perform, to demonstrate, or simply to reflect. This cute girl just stood there throwing candy to people..
Photo: arcspace
Photo © Antony Gormley
“The idea is very simple. Through putting a person onto the plinth, the body becomes a metaphor, a symbol. In the context of Trafalgar Square with its military, valedictory and male historical statues, this elevation of everyday life to the position formerly occupied by monumental art allows us to reflect on the diversity, vulnerability and particularity of the individual in contemporary society. It’s about people coming together to do something extraordinary and unpredictable. It could be tragic but it could also be funny.”
Antony Gormley
Went early in the morning to see SANAA’s 2009 Serpentine Pavilion in Hyde Park. Wanted to experience how it melts into the surroundings when empty of people.
Read all about the SANAA Pavilion in arcspace feature.
“The Pavilion is floating aluminium, drifting freely between the trees like smoke. The reflective canopy undulates across the site, expanding the park and sky.”
Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa
Photo: arcspace
Photo courtesy the Serpentine Gallery
The Serpentine Gallery showed American artist Jeff Koons’ Popeye series, which he began in 2002. Would have been amazing to see them in the SANAA Pavilion!
Photo © 2008 Jeff Koons
Popeye 2003
Oil on canvas
Love how Koons combines everyday objects, cartoon imagery, and children’s toys, always makes you smile. His inflatable sculptures, typically used by children in a swimming pool, are cast in aluminium, painted to resemble the original objects.
The exhibition is on view through September 13, 2009.
Photo © 2009 Jeff Koons
Caterpillar Ladder 2003
Polychromed aluminium, aluminium, plastic
Photo © 2009 Jeff Koons
Seal Walrus Trashcans 2003-2009
Polychromed aluminum, galvanized steel
On the other side of Hyde Park Carmody Groarke and Arup designed the permanent installation, 7 July Memorial, in memory of the people who lost their lives in the 2005 terrorist bombings. Fifty-two 850kg stainless steel vertical pillars, each representing one of the fifty-two lives lost, are arranged in an open pattern of four interlinked clusters representing the four locations of the bombs.
Photo: Christian Richters/VIEW
I never visit London without visiting the Tate. Started at Tate Britain to see the Richard Long: Heaven and Earth exhibition. Long revolutionized the definition of sculpture by using walking as a medium. He never makes significant alterations to the landscapes he passes through. Instead he marks the ground or adjusts the natural features of a place by up-ending stones for example, or making simple traces.
The exhibition is on view through September 6, 2009.
Photo © Copyright Richard Long
A Line in the Himalayas 1975
Photo © Copyright Richard Long
A Line in Scotland 1981
Photo © Copyright Richard Long
Dusty Boots Line 1988
“Walking-as-Art provided a simple way for me to explore relationships between time, distance, geography, measurement and movement.”
Richard Long
Took a short boat ride from Tate Britain to Tate Modern to see the two current exhibitions: Futurism and Danish artist Per Kirkeby.
The Futurism movement set out to modernize Italian art and social attitudes and its influence spread across Europe and beyond, revolutionizing the response to the dynamism of modern life. Its master of ceremonies was the poet Filippo Tommaso Marinetti and this exhibition celebrates the centenary of his publication of The Founding and First Manifesto of Futurism in 1909.
“We stand on the last promontory of the centuries!... Why should we look back, when what we want is to break down the mysterious doors of the Impossible? Time and Space died yesterday. We already live in the absolute, because we have created eternal, omnipresent speed.”
F.T. Marinetti (First Manifesto of Futurism in 1909)
The exhibition is on view through September 6, 2009.
Photo © Tate Photography
Christopher Richard Wynne Nevinson
The Arrival 1913
Oil on canvas
The exhibition of Danish artist Per Kirkeby, brings together his Pop-inspired paintings from the 1960s with early paintings on canvas from the late 1970s, an extensive group of blackboard works, sculptures and a selection of the monumental canvases for which Kirkeby is best known.
The exhibition is on view through September 6, 2009.
Photo: Tate © Per Kirkeby
Oil on canvas
The revised plans for the new development of Tate Modern 2 by Herzog & de Meuron have been granted planning permission by Southwark Council. At the heart of the new plans are the unique oil tanks of the former power station, which will be retained as raw spaces for art, from which the new building will rise.
Photo © Tate Media
Panoramic image of southern oil tank
These revisions have been shaped by a desire to integrate the new structure with the existing building and to contribute to the local environment by opening up a new North/South route from the Millennium Bridge through the building to Southwark. The integration is expressed in a facade, which echoes that of the original power station but uses brick in a radical new way by creating a perforated brick lattice through which the building will glow in the evening.
Photo © Hayes Davidson and Herzog & de Meuron
Exterior view from the south 2009
Photo © Hayes Davidson and Herzog & de Meuron
Exterior view from the south 2009
The Design Museum is also located on the South Bank of the Thames, with spectacular views of the City and Canary Wharf. Devoted to contemporary design in every form, from furniture to graphics, and architecture to industrial design, it is working to place design at the centre of contemporary culture. The former 1940s Banana warehouse was renovated by Conran Partnership in 1989 to resemble a Modernist building from the 1930s.
Photo: arcspace
Photo: arcspace
Javier Mariscal, currently on view at the Museum, designed and painted the elaborate mural showcasing his unique vision and signature design style.
The Admissions desk, Museum Shop and Museum Café, are located on the ground floor. The Blue Print Café is one of Terence Conran's many restaurants.
Photo: arcspace
Caught three exhibitions there. Super Contemporary, Remembering Jan Kaplicky - architect of the future, and Mariscal - Drawing Life.
Photo: arcspace
For Super Contemporary the Design Museum joined forces with Beefeater 24 to celebrate the fearlessly progressive spirit of London's greatest creative minds, past and present. London thinks, designs and makes like no other city....it creates and the world follows. A magnet for mavericks and freethinkers, London has nurtured a creative community that continues to rival most other design capitals.
The exhibition is on view through October 4, 2009.
Photo: Graham Jepson
Barber Osgerby
Listening Station
Photo: Graham Jepson
Thomas Heatherwick
Lamp Post Chandelier
Photo: Graham Jepson
Paul Smith
New London Rubbish Bin
Jan Kaplicky, who died earlier this year, was the Czech architect responsible for some of the most remarkable buildings that Britain has ever seen. Lord’s cricket ground holds the press box he built with his former partner Amanda Levete - their first major project that won the Stirling Prize.
Photo courtesy The Design Museum
Kaplicky also designed the Selfridges department store in Birmingham and, even more remarkable are the buildings that Kaplick? designed, which the world will never see - his stream of ideas for solar powered vehicles, electric cars, jewelry, bikinis and double-decker buses.
The exhibition is on view through November 1, 2009.
Photo: Timothy Davey
Southbank Cultural Center, London
Collaboration with Anish Kapoor
Competition entry, 2001
Photo: Timothy Davey
Earth Center, Doncaster, UK
Competition winner, 1995
Photo: Timothy Davey
Electric Car, concept, 1995
Spanish designer and artist Javier Mariscal is regarded as one of the world's most innovative and original designers. His rich and diverse body of work spans from kooky cartoon characters to stunning interiors, from furniture to graphic design and corporate identities. Mariscal’s intense relationship with drawing and illustration is central to his career and is the basis for his designs over the last 30 years.
The exhibition is on view through November 1, 2009.
Photo: arcspace
Shower Tunnel
An installation of 640 illustrated ideas that represent Mariscal's visual language from 1970 to 2009 forms the entrance to the exhibition.
Photo courtesy The Design Museum
Joie de Vivre
Villa Julia apartments in cardboard alongside pine trees, made from 18 “Miralook” chairs, together form part of a visual allegory of the joy of living (Barcelona, 2009).
Photo: arcspace
Cobi, the official Olympic mascot of the Barcelona games.
Photo: arcspace
Communication Curtain
A composition made out of bags designed for Camper for Kids with images of the six campaigns (Inca, 2005-2009).
The exhibition is on view through November 1, 2009.
The Serpentine Gallery
The Tate
The Design Museum
The Fourth Plinth
Architecture, Art and Design combined with Indian, Chinese, Japanese, and Thai food...What a swell party this was:)
August 24, 2009