DESCENT INTO LIMBO

Anish Kapoor, Descent into Limbo, 1992

...the void manifests itself as a force field in which materiality becomes immaterial, the solidity of objects is negated by recessive and vanishing spaces, and the finite is punctured with apertures indicating the infinite. Once inside the event horizon of each work, the viewer is invited to reflect closely on the micro-physics of viewing: this yields up a disturbingly intense self-awareness. Kapoor’s works oblige the viewer to become sensitive to the continuous processes of cognition and imagination, instinct and dream, sensation and inference, by which the mind constructs the world. Indeed in such an act of aesthetic response, the mind has a sudden and uncanny experience of looking at itself. 

- Nancy Adajania, The Mind Viewing Itself

JUNYA ISHIGAMI

To rest your head on the thinnest table - something like eternity.

MESOPOTAMIA

Translated from the ancient greek term mesopotamia, 'between two rivers' the sculptural vessels by amsterdam-based designer siba sahabi makes the connection between this ancient land - located between the rivers - with its pottery innovations and western ceramics culture which developed through these new technologies. a circular, ribbed finish is one of the distinguishing characteristics of minyan ware which reflects its production process on a potter’s turntable.although the turntable no longer plays a significant role in the production of modern large-scale pottery today, the appearance of 
hand-turned ceramics is often imitated by producing circular shapes with fine ridges.

PROJECTED PASTS

New Zealander Mike Hewson is an engineer by training, yet is about to give up his job in Australia to move back to New Zealand and pursue his artistic practices, which until now have been a sideline, full time. And it's a good thing too!

His most recent installation works are hauntingly beautiful: crisp, blue and sepia-toned photos of what was are projected onto the urban gap spaces left in the wake of the Christchurch earthquakes.

At re:Start Cashel Mall, the aptly titled "View from Studio" projects what was once the outward view onto what was once the window, asking by-passers to consider a smaller moment of what was touched by the iconic Cathedral.

Nearby, the former Christchurch Normal school, which is soon to be demolished, is re-inhabited by vivid photographs of the artists who once lived and worked there. Architecturally, I am also quite enamoured with how the plywood, onto which Hewson projects, sits within the existing structures. This kind of honest approach to time and destruction, rather than merely demolishing, would make for a beautiful city. The simple material infill marks, rather than attempts to erase the pain and destruction.

You can follow Mike's work as he progresses into full-time artist  here.

MUURATSALO

Muuratsalo Experimental House

Alvar Aalto. Muuratsalo, Finland. 1953.

TEXTILE FIELD

Bouroullec Brothers: Textile Field

on

Nowness.com

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HOCKNEY

It had slipped my mind just how great - and, typically of things forgotten, useful for my thesis - David Hockney's early forays into the photographic world were (see above). That is, until I readthis article on his latest foray, using multiple digital cameras in generate a gridded image which becomes a 'moving collage', in Technology review. Not only is the article inspiring, situating this new practice in relation to Hockey's broader oeuvre and in relation to historical constructs of 'perspective', but the resultant images are also stunning. As Hockney points out in the interview, 

"Don't we need people who can see things from different points of view?"

A still from the 18-screen video May 12th 2011 Rudston to Kilham Road 5 PM. Credit: ©David Hockney

MATERIAL DEFORMATIONS

Having been thinking about the manipulation and opening up of an existing, partially brick building on my site, it has been exciting to tumble through a series of images similar to those which are being constructed on my own drawing board.

Twisted bricks generate an oblique porosity in Studiomake's Dude Cigar Bar.

Increasingly spare steel verticals between horizontals creates a floating weightlessness of an otherwise seemingly 'solid' material in Gijs Van Vaerenbergh's 'Reading between the lines'. The project description and relation to the church typology is particularly compelling.

Back to bricks (or tiles, at least) at Arturo Franco's Warehouse 8B

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