haven't had internet on my home computer since april, so posts have been non-existent. But now I do, let it rain once more.
After nearly 6 months of trying, I finally managed to get a hold of 3 retro timber Parker-style chairs on ebay. These ones are an Australian-made version c1950's dubbed the "boomerang chair" because of the single boomerang-shaped piece that makes up the base and back.
totally overwhelmed with theory and assignments and prac and the likes at the moment, so given the amount of time i have spent in the library recently, this work is perfectly suited to the mindset i am in at this present moment in time. 
god its been ages since i've written anything, uni is taking its toll on me, being bombarded with theory and having to go on prac.
another work in progress, again more of a prototype than a finished piece. it still requires a little bit of cleaning up, i'm still learning how to use my micromotor, and experimenting with what the different burrs are capable of.
hooray! i finally i had the sense to plead with the family to aid me in my quest for a new camera so i can photograph a few of my recent jewellery pieces, and santa came through with my wishes.
...and so the question arises, when assembling a collection of colourful objects, how do you group them all? does the art deco stuff go with other art deco stuff, or does the silver go with other silver stuff, even though they are vastly different in style, shape and technique?
i had the esteemed luxury last week of being able to sit in pierre paulin's "ribbon" chair, designed in 1966 (though the fabric wasn't quite so garish as this!), and normally the vast majority of fabulous designer chairs are particularly awkward and uncomfortable to sit in, with the final look of the finished piece being more important than the actual ergonomics of the chair. but "ribbon" was so comfortable i practically melted into it! (i was almost in tears when i found out the price though.) the replica is made by artifort, and distributed in oz by kezu.
more coffee table books again, (i think i'm going to need a bigger coffee table) and while i'm not a religious person in the slightest, i've always been fascinated by the architecture, symbolism and theory behind some of the church's greatest buildings. if ever you go travelling through europe, you will notice all these ancient tiny little villages and towns scattered over the countryside that all have these amazing cathedrals that dwarf any other structure around. and one can only imagine how many more of these would still be around had it not been for the destructive bombings of world war ii. in particular, i am mesmerised by gazing up at the domed/vaulted structure and defintion that adorns the ceilings of these ancient giants. and while i always attempted to capture for myself some of these brilliant visions, i never quite had the photographic skills required to depict what i was seeing in all its glory. the autistic in me is fascinated by the complex mathematical geometry and abstract pattern involved in the construction, the vast majority of which were built using the primitive technologies of years gone by.
oscar peterson's "we get requests" from 1964, accompanied in this trio by ray brown on bass and ed thigpen on drums, is often criticised for being full of popular songs of the era, the type that crowds would walk up to the stage and "request", but i happen to be a big fan of a lot of different jazz genres, and there is always an album for every sort of listening occasion, and this incredible little session is absolutely perfect as nice soft relaxing background music. simple, yet perfect in every way.
right this minute i'm watching jim jarmusch's 1986 film "down by law", which tells the story of 3 strangers thrust into a prison cell together for crimes they didn't commit. zack (tom waits) and jack (john lurie) come to blows and refuse to talk to each other, bob (roberto benigni) in his limited, broken english, convinces his other two cellmates to escape through the swamplands surrounding the prison. hopelessly lost and with zack and jack's hatred for each other growing, the trio stumble across a house in the woods owned by nicoletta, with whom bob instantly falls in love.
another massive influence from my art-studying days, japanese artist tadashi kawamata's site-specific installations recreate often unseen and unknown connections between the past present and future, between the internal and the external, the actual and the potential - they reveal another identity to the spaces they are installed in, highlighting the mostly invisible elements of their cultural, historical and social dimensions.
in previous discussions of hero worship, i mentioned art that references other artists, or songs as a homage to other musicians. here is another great example of hero worship, this time art referencing literature -jeff wall's "after ralph ellison (the invisible man)" 2000
i have had an image of this bridge on my bedroom wall for the last 4 years, after i made a stealthy mission into the offices at work and defaced a coworkers calendar to steal the picture!
it's always such a shame that the great career of a musician as talented as this goes so largely overlooked, forever in the shadows of the "better known" bop trumpeters named dizzy and miles. but kenny dorham's undeniable talent is highlighted in this intimate little live double-set " 'round about midnight live at the cafe bohemia", which is perhaps a little more pallatable an introduction to this genre for non-jazz fans than some of the hard-bop being produced by his counterparts around the same time (1956). i have a particular fondness for musicians who cover monk songs, and dorham's ballad interpretation of the title track, "round about midnight" is one of the album standouts. i'm also particularly fond of the dizzy cover of "a night in tunisia", and the dorham-penned bop track "mexico city" (which sounds a lot like a reinterpretation of bud powell's "tempus fugue-it", though have yet to find a jazz critic who is willing to back up my claims). also keep an ear out for guitarist kenny burrell, who only one day prior to these live recordings had just finished recording his blue note debut, "introducing kenny burrell"
also check out the art blakey + jazz messengers "live at the cafe bohemia" recordings to hear a bit more of dorham at his best...
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".
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.
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.
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 
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.
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.
... and now to one of the defining moments of my object-collecting obsession. (and also time to brag just a wee bit)
more images of inspiration, this one by british artist richard wilson entitled "turning the place over" from 2000.
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.
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.
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. 
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.
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!
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.
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.
step 1. get this album
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.
oooh, czech glass.
...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.
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? 
