coffee table books

phaidon is reknowned for releasing some amazing books with lots of pretty pictures, i should know, my library is FULL of them. and it gives me fantastic excitement and spine chills when i check out the local bookstore in my lunchbreak (ariel at darlinghurst is absolutely phenomenal, for those who love art/philosophy/design etc, check out their collection!) and see that phaidon have released the third edition in their "10x10" series, whereby 10 design critics/architecture kingpins pick their 10 favourite up-and-coming architects (making for 100 in total) and cram this huge big book with lots of visual stimuli! also check out phaidon's other books in the series, "area"/"area 2" (meant to be little 2 to indicate area squared, but my typing skills are slightly lacking) which uses the same 10x10 concept, but with graphic designers as the topic of choice, and "cream"/"fresh cream"/"ice cream" from a few years back which went 10x10 on visual artists. makes for a well-wicked coffee table book for the design conscious mind, or for people who want to pretend to friends that they are actually "cultured".

peter eisenman / deconstructavism

...was randomly searching the intergoogle, looking up some of the old architects i used to have a fondness for, and stumbled upon this unbelievable concept model by architect peter eisenman, the master of the often controversial and highly confrontational "deconstructivist" movement of architecture, (of whom frank gehry, rem koolhaus, zaha hadid and daniel libeskind are also considered exponents) which was largely inspired by the philosphophy of derrida, and the geometrical imbalances of russian constravism and minimalism (two of my most favourite art/architecture movements!). sadly, i have no idea what this building is or any other information about it, just two ridiculously amazing images, in his distinctly unique style.

jeunet

i've been revisiting my foreign film collection recently, and i've just finished watching jean-pierre jeunet's "a very long engagement", and i must confess, the more i watch his films, the more i wish i was able to speak french, so i could woo audrey tautou, particularly the delightfully cheeky little darling she plays in "amelie".
next movie on the watch list is jeunet's "delicatessan" (sadly, no audrey)

in the court of the crimson king

i know i have a tendency to listen to a bunch of albums that were released more than 50 years ago, so instead of setting my time machine back to the 1950's jazz era, i will instead opt for the late 60's, and this absolute aural masterpiece, king crimson's phenomenal debut album "in the court of the crimson king". i was watching the film "kingdom of men" the other night, and in one scene michael caine has the song "epitaph..." playing on the radio, and it inspired me to get it out and listen to it repeatedly, non-stop, day and night.
loosely termed "prog rock" (although the band themselves despised that title) every time i listen to this album, it continues to blow my mind. i'm not even going to begin to try and describe it, because their music is chameleonic (is that even a word? anyway, like a chameleon) and changes form and structure so many times, combining elements of jazz, folk, classical, soundscape, etc. the list of influences is endless. i give up, i am just going to listen to the album again and lose myself.

landing sites - places to go when you die.

whoa. attempting to get my head around the work of arakawa and gins at the moment in a book called "architecture: site of reversible destiny", and getting majorly mind-fucked in the process. he's a philosopher, she's an architect, and their body of work revolves around the concepts of self-knowledge and self-formation, about how the human body interacts with the built environement and the socio-historical matrix, and the role the body played in the formation of the man-made world, presented through a philosophical argument into the realms of construction. some of the images presented are equal parts stunning and disturbing.

grrrr.

for years i've had this dream that i would be able to dedicate a room of my (future) house to be sort of a mini design museum, including

having a handful of iconic chairs. cassina of italy make some absolutely FANTASTIC replicas of the originals, including amongst their collection "red and blue"and "zigzag"chairs by gerrit reitveldt, and a handful of various charles rennie macintosh, le corbusier and frank lloyd wright chairs,

and so it breaks my heart when i drop into their australian distributor, space furniture, and find that they are over $10,000 each! they also have mario canzani's stunning "tatlin" lounge by edra in red velvet, but that tops out at over $25k! i'm going to need a very understanding wife!

as if i didn't know it already, but it just helped reinforce the fact - damn it is expensive to be a fan of nice design! angry face!

http://www.cassina.com/ENG/

leaning strata

once again, (until i can somehow work into my budget the money to buy a new digital camera so that i can photograph my own work), works i admire by inspirational artists in my fledgling art/design career.
probably THE founder of the movement towards a supposed "anti-architecure" (although never categorising his work under any such banner) robert smithson was actually at one point a lecturer at university to gordon matta-clark (who took his teachers mantle and made it his own.) unfortunately, australian libraries don't usually carry a lot of books on the lesser-known artists of the world, so i struggled to delve much further into his body of work, aside from probably his best known work, "spiral jetty" (a 1500 foot rock coil in the utah salt lakes, that become more or less exposed depending on the weather and how the tides were - google it!)
although better known for his works that involved the rearrangment of natural landscapes, i actually had the pleasure of seeing a smithson retrospective at london's tate modern in 2005?, where upon i discovered that smithson also had an impressive body of gallery works too. anyone who has seen any of my work can understand why the geometrically-mathematical nature of smithson's "leaning strata" (1968) particularly appeals to me.
check also the book that accompanied his touring retrospective exhibition, "robert smithson" published by Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, 2004.

the holy grail

...fast becoming my favourite pedal. reverb rocks my world.

i must invest in some more electro harmonix.

back after a short delay...

i've been a little slack in my postings of late, but i had an excuse, i travelled back home to brisbane for a week to hang out with the family.
it's inspiration time again, and here's a little broach entitled "untitled" from 2006, made of bog oak and silver by dutch jeweller francis willemstijn.
looking at her website, a lot of the work's of this series appear reminiscent of another great dutch artist, de stijl co-founder piet mondrian.
i attempted to build my own little piece of jewellery inspired by this work, but i have yet to work out a method for attaching timber to silver other than by cheating and using glue. be patient while i work on my crafting skills!
check out more of her stuff at http://www.willemstijn.com/

upmarket dollhouse furniture.

for the budget conscious design-lover, and those of you with space constraints who have a love for the iconic pieces of the 20th century, i have stumbled upon the perfect thing for you. miniature designer chairs. corbusier, eames, reitveldt, van der rohe, panton, barcelona chair - they are all available. i don't know exactly what scale they are at, but they are friggin' tiny and barely big enough to sit a lego man in, but are a hell of a lot cheaper than the real thing, or even the ridiculosouly overpriced vitra miniatures that are on the market.
i'm still searching around for suppliers, but kinokuniya bookshop in sydney sells them as complete sets of 8 for about $150 bucks, (i think there are 6 series in total) which isn't bad, but there are a few chairs in each series that aren't really all that desirable to have in a collection. i've also found another little shop that sells them individually for a rather expensive $50 each, but i won't name and shame him because he's a mate and stocks some truly amazing stuff. and modcons in brisbane sells them from memory, but i can't remember if they are sold in a set or individually.
am going to try some sort of mail-order thing that will let me pick and choose the exact ones i want, will let you know if i succeed. check out the company that manufactures them, http://www.reacjapan.com/ (although their website is in japanese!)

here is my handle, here is my spout

... and now to one of the defining moments of my object-collecting obsession. (and also time to brag just a wee bit)
during my stint working at the british museum, i actually managed to persuade the curator of the 20th century artefacts collection to let me don the white gloves and handle one of their prized little pieces of object design, this iconic silver teapot by one of the original bauhaus artist, german marianne brandt. although i had always had a love affair with the bauhaus movement and object design, this was the first time that i had seen a genuine piece of bauhaus object physically in the flesh (let alone being allowed to handle it!). i rubbed it vigurously, but sadly, no magic genie to grant me my wish of letting me keep the teapot.
while other museums specialise in objects of this nature, the british museum, more reknowned for its egyptian,greek and roman artecfacts, actually has some amazing little pieces of 20th century design left to the museum in collector's bequests. just to name drop a bit, i also got to handle a frank lloyd wright designed dinner plate, and a charles rennie macintosh candlestick.

turning the place over

more images of inspiration, this one by british artist richard wilson entitled "turning the place over" from 2000.

following on in the footsteps of gordon matta-clark (the original architerrorist), wilson's irreversible structural "intervention" involved cutting a ten metre diameter section out of the facade of an abandoned building, then mounting it onto a set of giant motors to power it through the full 360degrees, only being flush with the building at one moment through its' rotation. it also spun at enough speed to strike some fear into the hearts of spectators beneath, as the huge segment of concrete hung twisted and turned, at times appearing to hang perilously out over the footpath below.

hot

back in about 1995 there was somewhat of a swing revival, where some of the ska bands around at the time adopted more of a 1930's gangster approach, dressing in pinstripe suits and bowler hats and singing songs about tommy guns and the swingin' jazz clubs of yesteryear - bands like royal crown revue, cherry poppin' daddies, big bad voodoo daddy and the squirrel nut zippers. i remember when i first bought "hot" by the squirrel nut zippers back in such a time, and listened to it repeatedly, i was the subject of ridicule for being stuck in a time warp.
all those years on, and this album still rates as one of the top purchases in my collection. "hot" is an eclectic fusion of gypsy jazz, swing, jewish klezmer, calypso, delta blues, big band swing + a million other genres - you can see definite influences from artists such as cab calloway, fats waller, tom waits, django reinhardt et al. songs alternate between the male vocals of guitarist/frontman james mathus, female vocals of banjo player katherine whallen, and pure instrumental tracks. particular standouts for me are "got my own thing now", "bad businessman" and instrumental track "the interlocutor" (sensational little guitar solo on that one), but also check what was probably their biggest single, "hell", which tends to appeal to all.
the band members have since split to take up solo persuings, (the only solo album i've been able to track down is the delta blues offering from "jimbo" mathus') but word on the street is that they are reforming...

fabrizio tridenti

let me introduce you to the work of italian jeweller fabrizio tridenti, whose work consists of haphazard assemblages of found
object and handcrafted metal. i've always seemed to lean more towards more geometric and symmetrical works, but there's something about these that really appeal to me. i particularly like some of the varied surface treatments he uses - the way they are scratched, oxidised and enamelled, which help to emphasize the multifaceted nature of his work.
http://www.fabriziotridenti.it/home.html and http://www.klimt02.net/jewellers/index.php?item_id=8307

open sesame

i can not get enough of blue note at the moment, and love the fact that i happen to live directly above a record store that has a whole heap of the blue note back catalogue that they are flogging off really cheap. although i happen to be rather skint at the moment, i can still manage a meagre $10 out of my budget to add another album to my collection once a week.
and with every album i add to my collection, it means i have to rearrange my music collection in my own obsessive-compulsive way so that everything will fit and that certains genres are all grouped together etc.
it was during one of these crazy periods or rearranging that i rediscovered the joys of this little hard-bop masterpiece from 1960, trumpeter freddie hubbard's debut album "open sesame". in particular, i am loving his versions of 2 fantastic little tina brooks numbers (who accompanies hubbard on tenor sax, along with mccoy tyner, sam jones and clifford jarvis) the title track "open sesame" and "gypsy blue".
check out more of hubbard and his trumpet, both as a band leader and with artists such as herbie hancock, art blakey's jazz messengers and (as always, referring back to previous posts, http://armchairsuperhero.blogspot.com/2009/07/ascension.html) on john coltrane's album "ascension"

the armchair superhero manifesto

what started as a few notes in the back of a sketchbook on the way to uni one day has since turned into a lifelong obsession - to compile a personal manifesto as to what it is i am trying to achieve through my artistic practise. although not really a manifesto as such just yet, more an ever-growing list of ideas and concepts that is constantly added to and subtracted from, it has helped me better define some my ideas and concepts. some of the concepts/statements repeat themselves over and over again, so one day in the future when i have the time and patience, i will tighten some of these up a wee bit.

i don't know if it will eventually make some of the concepts behind my work easier for some people to understand, or whether it will just come across largely as a huge pile of art-wank. be warned - i have pages and pages of this stuff!

so here is an extract from it: (thank goodness for cut and paste!)
(art no longer a model of creativity and expression, but as a process of dislocation / disruption)
- An investigation into architectural genres in artistic terms
- Sculptural collision between "void mental space" and matter+objects
- Architectural dislocation and inversion
- Modernist ideals of systematic objectivity
- Renewed haptic experience of constructed space
- Superfluous architecture in a minimalist sense
- A personal reconstruction of left-over space
- Maquettes of a visionary low-tech architecture
- Representations of an individualistic reality
- The occupation of negative space, or rather, the non-occupation of positive space
- Sense of tension through the introduction of deconstructavist elements
- The idea of multiplication is implicit in a construction. -> Mass production
- The occupation of negative space, or rather, the non-occupation of positive space
- Rendered façade with a pop aesthetic
- Eradication of extraneous and distracting visual elements
- Visible content and invisible institutional frame
- Ways to counteract the static nature of singular objects
- Reconstruction leads to emergence of a sufficiently transparent and diaphanous place
- The extent to which modern architecture can intervene into pre-established historical settings
- Sculptural language bordering on parody
- Room dividers – components dismantling and fracturing ambient light
- a cartoonish representation or response of architecture rather than actually being architecture itself.
- permanent construction derisive of the historical buildings that have lasted for centuries
- vehicles for concepts about visual perception, re-presentation
- various forms of abstracted architecutre
- parodies of historical forms
- suprematist/minimalist bloodlines (postmodernist self-reflexivity)
- geometric abstraction
- minimalist seriality and machine manufacture
- constructavist geometry as pure abstraction
- architecture with a multiplicity of functions + experiences (simultaneous)
- establishing a point of tension with the architectural ensemble
- ethereal, immaterial qualities, integrating art with architecture. creating a dynamic interplay between viewer, object and room

hero worship

my last post on stephen hendee naming a work after a john coltrane album, and then a prvious post prior about coltrane naming a song after paul chambers, got me thinking about works of art/songs where one of your favourite artists dedicates the piece to another of your favourite artists.
been racking my brain all day for examples, and i think i've settled on this one, "untitled for v. tatlin 1966", with dan flavin paying homage to vladimir tatlin. 2 gods rolled into one. magic.
then i'm going to follow that up with the modern jazz quintet's "django" after django reinhardt. or what about bad religion's "21st century digital boy", as a mark of respect to king crimson's "21st century shizoid man". or the doves "m62 Song" after another king crimson song, "moonchild..." oh so many choices, better stop now before this list goes on and on and on

ascension

another artist who i wish i had known a little more about during my art studies, american stephen hendee creates large geometric, science-fiction inspired installations made from fluorescent light, sheets of plastic and black electrical tape. it's difficult to track down any of his latest works on the internet (i don't think his website has been updated in a while), but this one from 2007 entitled "the eye" appears to be one of his most recent, although i have been able to deduce that he is still plying his trades in the artistic arena as an associate professor of sculpture at univeristy of nevada, so i'm sure there is more work to come from him in the not too distant future.
although better experienced insitu rather than through images, the documentation is all that remains from temporary installations of this nature, so check http://www.stephenhendee.com/ for more pictures
also check out the exhibition book "ascension" (aptly named after being inspired by coltrane's album of the same title), a documentation of hendee's installation in birmingham, alabama in 2002-03.

the object of my affection

I currently have my eye on this art deco "Cactus" candle holder, from the same series as my other piece, by the austrian company goldscheider. I actually stumbled across this piece about 6months ago when i bought my piece, (see http://armchairsuperhero.blogspot.com/2009/05/blog-post.html) and i was desperate to add this one to my collection but it sold before i got a chance! to my luck, now another collecter has emerged with an identical piece, in even better condition than the first one!
it's got $1500 on it at the moment. damn, how i wish i was more sensible with my money right now.
if you could please happily send your tax-deductable donations to the armchair superhero, and help me fund this tidy little purchase, i promise you can come and visit sometimes for a look.

hits and misses

everybody must, at some point in their lives, have had a favourite artistically-inclined person. be it an artist, musician/musical act, actor or designer, you have followed their career closely and worshipped their body of work - as soon as a new album or product or artwork is unveiled, you race out and purchase it to add to the collection, knowing that the work they produce is always going to be of exceptional quality and consistent with their previous efforts. no need to read a review about it first, you know you are going to love it.
but every now and then, they release something amongst their amazing body of work, that, well, just doesn't do it for you.
i personally must confess that i am guilty of having a shopping-list of people who's practise i closely follow. i am a MASSIVE admirer of german designer konstanin grcic's body of work, and so was super-excited to hear that at milan this year, magis would be unveiling grcic's new "360 chair".
this is one of those products that you will have a love-hate relationship with - you either love it, or you absolutely hate it, correction, you absolutely DESPISE it. unfortunately, i must confess that i am in the latter half of this equation. i have not yet had the (uncomfortable)pleasure of sitting on this chair, or even seeing it in the flesh, but i know already that this is one of his products that i am just going to have to conveniently push to the back of my mind when i admire grcic's work. did i say push to the back of my mind? i meant eradicate from my memory completely. someone me the address for the clinic in "eternal sunshine..." i need to forget this chair, and quick.
in fact, i am such a non-fan the 360 chair that i would not dare taint my beloved blog by putting an image of it up, so instead, i will put an image of his previous effort from magis that i love so much, the "chair one". thank goodness for the rest of his work.

backing tracks

the man who was the inspiration behind john coltrane's track "mr p.c.", i chose an image of this album as it is the only album of paul chamber's I own that has him as band leader, but i could've picked from a bunch of albums where he featured as part of the rhythm section, i look through a handful of the albums in my collection, and realise how incrediblly PROLIFIC chambers was, and seem startled by the fact that, like so many other jazz talents, died at the relatively young age of 33. If you look at his body of work, (playing with such jazz greats as chet baker, sonny clark, miles davis, john coltrane, cannonball adderley, red garland, sonny rollins, lee morgan, jackie mclean, and the list goes on and on and on!), you realise how much of an incredible impact he had on the jazz scene and bass playing, and makes me wonder if he is, in fact, possibly the greatest jazz session muso ever?
opening track "yesterdays" highlights chambers training in classical music - chambers was the first bass player to use a bow in a jazz recording. personal standout track is chambers' version of cole porter's "you'd be so nice to come home to"
plus he played on some of my favourite jazz albums ever - monk's "brilliant corners"; oliver nelson's "blues and the abstract truth"; coltrane's "blue train" and "giant steps"; and sonny clark's "sonny clark trio" and "cool struttin'". a man definitely worthy of "hero" status.

concept model for "untitled (hallway)", 2003

I actually managed to find an image of one of the old conceptual models i used to make that reminds me so much of arne quinze's work. i made this one back in my days as a 2nd year fine arts student in 2003. built out of the scraps of an old model leftover from a construction principles subject i took in my pre-art days when i was a lowly architecture student, this unrecognised work was intended to fill a corner of the art gallery, but due to health and safety reasons, they wouldn't let me build it in large scale. also love the fact i did the cliche artist thing and labelled everything as "untitled".

Fink

had the pleasure of seeing two fantastic exhibitions the last couple of days - object gallery has a "fink design" exhibition on at the moment, featuring all of their designers. the show is full of lots of amazing prototypes and limited edition releases that haven't been seen by many previously.
metalab is concurrently running a retrospective of fink founder robert foster's works, including (of course) his signature jugs (of which i am the proud owner of a gold one), and lots of other works in his material of choice, anodised aluminium.
check http://www.finkdesign.com/who.html for more on fink, or http://www.object.com.au/home.html and http://www.metalab.com.au/ for more info on the shows.

the 7 steps to enlightenment

step 1. get this album
step 2. listen to it a whole bunch of times on your home stereo in all its glory, over and over again.
step 3. marvel at its' wonder.
step 4. now put this jazz masterpiece on your headphones, and listen to it on your morning walk to work
step 5. prepare to have your mind blown
step 6. marvel at the complex yet subtle intricacies in the composition of "black saint..." that you had never noticed prior til that moment of sheer listening pleasure that was harnessed through your crappy i-pod headphones.
step 7. build a shrine to mingus

i love chaos...

i'm currently reading (or more correctly, just looking at the pictures) an incredible coffee table art book about belgian conceptual artist Arne Quinze, and I found this image, which amazingly bears the same colourings as the image i used in my previous post, hence why i have pinned it here. plus the fact i really dig this guys work. i wish i knew about him back when i was doing my fine arts degree, this guy and i share some very similar visions with our artistic concepts.
see more of his stuff at http://www.arnequinze.tv/

time to dust off the old collectors hat

oooh, czech glass.
oh how i wish i lived in europe, so i could scour the garage sales and op shops for amazing bits of glass so highly sort after by collectors all around the world. the few lucky pieces that have managed to make it to aussie shores are being sold for a ridiculous amout by those in the know, and they are becoming increasingly hard to come by. and even harder to purchase on a poor-man's budget.

it's all here in black and white.

...here is the first image of the next piece for my collection that i have my eye on, sure to take pride and place alongside the goldscheider piece.

Here is the (replica) vase by one of my favourite designers/architects, Italian legend Ettore Sottsass. Despite lacking the vivid colour so distinct in his "memphis" works, this black and white piece c1980 still exhibits that obvious sottsass touch.

(re) discovered gems.

you know when you own an album that you bought ages ago from the bargain bin, listened to once, and then stuffed back into the pile to gather dust?

and then one day, you accidently decide to give it a play, and discover an aural masterpiece?

as much as i have tried for years to avoid all things miles davis, whom i have always found to be so ridiculously over-rated, i have been tempted back to the darkside by gusman, who advised that perhaps i should give some of his "earliest" stuff a listen.

so that's when i revisited my collection, and discovered miles davis' workin'...

originally purchased to satisfy my need for a bit of a coltrane fix, (who makes up the rest of the quintet, along with red garland, paul chambers and philly joe jones), and given that this lineup recorded an incredible 5 ALBUMS IN 2 DAYS! (miles: the new miles davis quintet, cookin', relaxin', workin' and steamin') i may now find myself adding a few more early miles albums to my collection.

the opening two tracks "it never entered my mind" and "four" have been played in my repertoire non-stop for the last 2 weeks.

ps. i still think he's over-rated.

recent additions...

We all know I have an OCD when it comes to collecting things, you only have to look at my staggering collection of albums to realise that, so I've made it one of my new life ambitions to try and score a place on the ABC's "Collectors", and it's my glass/silver/ceramics collection of vases, candelabra and bowls that I hope will get me there someday soon.
While I try and focus on the more obscure bits'n'pieces, I do have a soft spot for some of the mass produced contemporary stuff that is currently being produced, and recently stumbled upon this funky little Danish company, Muuto, and really dig their stuff.

Recently picked up both this yellow vase, and a nice little white earthenware jug. http://muuto.com/

every cloud has a silver lining.

right now i really hate trying to join tiny pieces of silver together, and i hate the fact that my digital camera has gone to camera heaven (or hell?) so i can't take photos of any of the new pieces i've been painstakingly trying to complete. bummer.
but last night i had a fantastic time listening to "solo monk" while the silversmithing drove me mad. god bless monk.

the ghosts of years gone by.

hey jazz cats, check out angus's new musical venture, Gusman and the Ghostmen.
His band is a celebration of the sideman - the unsung heroes of music who work their craft cloaked in the shadows. They are the often-overlooked architects and builders of song, responsible for the magical moments in music that leave you astonished. check out www.myspace.com/gusmanghostmen

the first of many...

...and so here marks my first purchase of a piece of genuinely original 1932 art-deco porcelain, although purchased months ago, i have been dying to get an image of it up somewhere, cost me a small fortune, but worth every cent. god bless the austrians. I love you Goldscheider.
It is actually a candle holder for 2 candles, but i am too terrified to use it with candles for fear of accidently destroying it!