Mapping Memories Exhibition 15 September Koppel Project Gallery

"Mapping Memories is a researching tool and visualisation platform that stands for the recognition of Latin Americans in the UK. The project is carried out by Verónica Posada (critic for BAIA) and Lorena Raigoso. In London, Mapping Memories aims to make visible the cultural practices of the Latin American community whilst strengthening community cohesion and a reinforcing a sense of belonging in the areas in which Latin Americans live, work and meet. We advocate for the protection of Latin American spaces that are at risk of demolition due to the dynamics of regeneration and gentrification in the city of London."

next Thursday 15 of September at 6:30 pm at The Koppel Project - 93 Baker Street, W1U 6RL.

Sami Rintala Lecture 14 January

'Shooting Thoughts' by Filipe Vilas-Boas

"This past week, experience designer Filipe Vilas-Boas launched his latest public project, Shooting Thoughts, in the stunning French Gothic church of Saint-Eustache, Paris. Co-commissioned by Art, Culture et Foi and Nuit Blanche Paris, Shooting Thoughts is an interactive installation project that uses projection mapping to create a “constellation of stars.”

Shooting Thoughts  uses "text messaged thoughts" to create catalysts "for laser beams that travel up the pathways defined by the building's architecture. The project description explains,“The pillars are used as launch stations that carry the star to its final destination on the ceiling of the church via the arches and vaults. Like all of us, each star finds its place at its own speed with its individual trajectory.”

from the Creator's project.

Collages by Frank Dresme

"Project 360U+00B0 was a thesis project produced at The Utrecht School of Arts in 2007. The project, was vested in the production of four psychogeographic maps. These maps are the routes between personal destinations in Amsterdam."

more here.

'Bounce below' in an abandoned slate mine in Wales

"Giant trampolines inside a mammoth slate quarry cavern are the latest tourist attraction tipped to bring thousands of thrill seeking tourists to the region.

Bounce Below will open next month at Llechwedd in Blaenau Ffestiniog – the world’s first facility of this kind. The caverns, twice the size of St Paul’s Cathedral, will be lit up in a light show while visitors bounce on giant trampolines linked by a 60ft long slide."

From here and here.

Mapping- 'The World Redrawn by the 5 Senses'

Tatzu Nishi – “Discovering Columbus” In New York City

Interior View of Installation

The new project by Tatzu Nishi, mentioned recently on the blog in this post, is a faux living room around the iconic statue of Christopher Columbus that is situated in the middle of Columbus Circle in Manhattan.

Exterior View of Installation

View of Columbus Circle without installation

Archipelago Cinema by Buro Ole Scheeren

A work with a strong connection to the local community, Archipelago Cinema is based on the techniques used by fishermen to construct floating lobster farms. The raft is built out of recycled materials as a series of individual modules to allow for flexibility for its future use. 

more at ArchDaily.

Building as Register: ICA Media Center by Diller + Scofidio + Renfro

From http://www.dillerscofidio.com/ica.html:

"The new Boston Institute of Contemporary Art is located on the harbor at Fan Pier in south Boston. The 62,000 square foot building includes 18,000 square feet of galleries, a performing arts theater, a restaurant, a bookstore, education/workshop facilities, and administrative offices.

The Boston Harborwalk borders the north and west edges of the ICA site. This surface is metaphorically extended into the new building as a pliable wrapper that defines the building’s major public spaces.  Above the wrapper sits the "gallery box": a large exhibition space on one level that dramatically cantilevers over the Harborwalk toward the water."

There are a lot of interesting and successful parts of this building.  The Media Center room there is particularly interesting for our discussions of "building as register" because of the 'fold' that exposes a specific view to the water below.

The Media Center is the wedge-shaped protrusion below the ICA’s distinctive 80 foot cantilevered top floor and as one visitor describes it "really shows what happens when you allow talented architects to do what they want: space is transformed. Water fills the front edge of the room’s view and the sensation of hanging is palpable."

Above: Design Drawing for Media Center room at the ICA by Diller + Scofidio + Renfro

 Above: Media Center room under construction in 2006

Above: Media Center room completed by Diller + Scofidio + Renfro

Large Scale Wrappings: Christo and Jeane-Claude

Christo and Jeane-Claude were a married couple who created environmental works of art. Although their work is visually impressive and often controversial as a result of its scale, the artists have repeatedly denied that their projects contain any deeper meaning than their immediate aesthetic impact. The purpose of their art, they contend, is simply to create works of art or joy and beauty and to create new ways of seeing familiar landscapes. Art critic David Bourdon has described Christo's wrappings as a "revelation through concealment."

For the wrapping of the Pont Neuf in Paris, 40,000 m2 of sand-colored polyamide fabric was needed. The wrapping began on 25 August 1985 and was completed on 22 September. In the next two weeks over three million people visited the project.

wrapping the Reichstag in Berlin,1995

The drawing/collages they make to illustrate their projects (which can take years to gather funds and support for) are necessarily gorgeous and effective in presenting their ambitious ideas.  

And of course these larger scale works started with kernels of smaller ideas:

There are many more interesting projects to be found at:


http://www.christojeanneclaude.net/

Gordon Matta-Clark: 'Splitting'

From the Met Museum website:

In the decade between receiving his B.A. in architecture from Cornell University and his death in 1978, Matta-Clark was a key member of the New York avant-garde. His work, like that of Dennis Oppenheim and Robert Smithson, was formed outside the parameters of gallery presentation, and as with many artists who matured in the 1960s, his subversive activities were rooted in a critique of bourgeois American culture.

Compelled to focus attention on the dehumanization of the modern world, Matta-Clark developed a personal idiom that combined Minimalism and Surrealism with urban architecture. Using abandoned buildings for his medium and wielding a chainsaw as his instrument, he cut into the structures, creating unexpected apertures and incisions.

In 1974, Matta-Clark operated on a two-story home in New Jersey slated for demolition, effectively splitting it down the middle. The light from the incision invaded the interior and united the rooms with a swath of brilliance. The artist photographed his work and created a collage of prints, the unconventional disposition of which re-creates the disorienting experience of the unprecedented destruction.

All images from Gordon Matta-Clark's project, Splitting, 1974

David Hockney: 'Joiners'

from 5magazine:

"Born on July 9, 1937 in Bradford, Yorkshire, England, David Hockney is considered one of the most influential British artists of the twentieth century.

Hockney’s creation of the “joiners” occurred accidentally. He noticed in the late sixties that photographers were using cameras with wide-angle lenses to take pictures. He did not like such photographs because they always came out somewhat distorted. Working on a painting of a living room and terrace in Los Angeles, he took Polaroid shots of the living room and glued them together as a preparatory work, not intending for them to be a composition on their own. Upon looking at the final composition, he realized it created a narrative, as if the viewer was moving through the room. He began to work more and more with photography after this discovery and even stopped painting for a period of time to exclusively pursue this new style of photography."

The Desk, July 1st 1984.

Robert Smithson

Floating Island to Travel Around Manhattan Island

New York, NY 1970/2005

Robert Smithson (1938-1973) was an internationally renowned American artist.

from http://www.robertsmithson.com/introduction/introduction.htm:

"He utilized non-traditional art materials such as language, mirrors, maps, dump trucks, abandoned quarries, hotels, contractors, and earth to produce his radical sculptures, photographs, films, and earthworks.

On looking for sites he stated 'I began in a very primitive way;..started taking trips in 1965; certain sites would appeal to me more--sites that had been in some way disrupted...pulverized. I was really looking for a denaturalization rather than built up scenic beauty...when you take a trip you need precise data& I would often use quadrangle maps; mapping followed traveling'"

Site studies from Hotel Palenque work:

On-site piece using mirrors:

"Sixth Mirror Displacement, from Yucatan Mirror Displacements (1-9)," by Robert Smithson, 1969,

9 chromogenic-development slides (exhibition prints, 2000), 12 x 12 inches, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York,

Photo courtesy Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, © Robert Smithson Estate

more at: http://www.robertsmithson.com/