little boxes on the hillside, little boxes made of ticky tacky, little boxes, little boxes, little boxes all the same, there's a green one and a pink one and a blue one and yellow one and they're all made out of ticky tacky and they all look just the same
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Thursday, 19 November 09 - 05:03 PM (GMT -06:00) By ro / lu in design |
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the new domestic landscape must have seemed worlds away. the scenery displayed at a moma's italy: the new domestic landscape looked like a haptic experience packed full of bizarre and playful objects to touch, sit on, and move around. the exhibition displayed artifacts aimed at reassesing the character of design and architecture by focusing on the objects of our daily ritual lives. it brought a spotlight on italy's avante garde who were trying to infuse humanity in design. italy also affirmed ettore sottsass's status as a great designer and radical thinker. his superbox stands out in sharp contrast to the international style's spirit of formal rigor and functionality. the cupboards have a durable and totemic quality that is undercut by the flimsy materials - plywood and plastic laminates.
these superboxes are lost somewhere between a postmodern aesthetic and classical greek architectural principles. the pieces have the appearance of a column severed at the midsection and the expressive nature that greeks imbued in their columnar design. yet the aesthetic choices are obviously the result of pop art and postmodern design. this is nostalgia at its best - a re-imagined past.
what i find interesting is their lack of scale in photographs, which adds to their nostalgic qualities. i could almost imagine these cupboards being used at the urban scale - daly city as a grid of superbox homes rather than the ticky tacky little boxes currently residing there.
enjoy the weekend.
posted by nicolas allinder
The Prairie Ladder project began as a commision from the Connemara Conservancy, an organization with large land holdings in central Texas, with the stated purpose of preserving, protecting, and honoring the prairie landscape. Each year a few ...
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Wednesday, 18 November 09 - 01:30 PM (GMT -06:00) By ro / lu in art |
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prairie ladder project - anderson anderson architecture w/ cameron schoepp
from the book installations by architects
originally via eyeteeth today via we make money not art
please enjoy.
posted by matt olson
It is easy to fall for dismissal, intimidation, misunderstanding, and perverse desire, while participating in and viewing Dan Graham’s work, many do. However, the works’ intentions usually meant to bypass all that. In Dan Graham’s pieces, the color, compo
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Wednesday, 18 November 09 - 09:41 AM (GMT -06:00) By ro / lu in art |
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dan graham. this for the fourth time tomorrow.
posted by matt olson
resembling isometric exercise equipment more than sculpture. One consisted of a metal T-bar that bolted to the floor, on which two people were supposed to stand, and a pair of metal rods connected to each other by short cords. Holding the rods in their ha
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Tuesday, 17 November 09 - 07:23 AM (GMT -06:00) By ro / lu in art |
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untitled 1970 - chris burden
early work by chris burden.
resembling isometric exercise equipment more than sculpture. One consisted of a metal T-bar that bolted to the floor, on which two people were supposed to stand, and a pair of metal rods connected to each other by short cords. Holding the rods in their hands, the two people leaned away from one another and attempted to strike a common balance. "This balance point," Burden comments, "is very elusive and can only be maintained for a few seconds." It is tantamount to trying to balance a top-heavy triangle on its point.
A second piece consisted of four pairs of cables joined together at the end of another cable that attached to the ceiling. The free end of each pair had a stirrup for a person's hand or foot. The idea was to get into the stirrups and assume an arched position in order to hover somewhat precariously over the floor. The amount of effort required to sustain this position is inversely related to the degree of arching: the flatter the arch, the more difficult the task.
A third piece was simply a large sheet of aluminum with two small footholds, supported in the center by a pivot that bolted to the floor. By lying down on the sheet and carefully adjusting one's position, one could balance on the pivot for an indefinite period of time.
All of these pieces attempt to establish a delicate sensual interplay between body and apparatus. They are extremely responsive to changes in position and muscle tension and seem to have been expressly designed to amplify these changes. They are not primarily to be looked at: they are to be donned and used. By drawing the viewer (viewer is obviously no longer the right word) into the work, giving him an active, literally constitutive role, Burden seemed to be trying to overcome the detachment and visual/intellectual distance usually entailed by object sculpture and replace it with an immediate kinesthetic involvement. Trading formal autonomy and stasis for dynamic equilibrium and engagement.via artforum may 1976
please enjoy.
posted by matt olson
The work I'm doing now isn't art. At least I hope it isn't art. I hope I am a designer. I think what I do is some kind of architecture, landscape, and product design. But obviously it didn't begin that way. It didn't really begin as art, either...
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Monday, 16 November 09 - 10:04 AM (GMT -06:00) By ro / lu in architecture |
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bad dream house 1984 - vito acconci
here's the transcript to a great talk by vito acconci.
here's an interview he did with architectural record.
i've been spending a lot of time with the magazine 0 to 9 that acconci did with bernadette mayer lately. highly recommended.
please enjoy.
posted by matt olson
"the result sought was the devitalization of the portico... the ambiguity has been removed by giving the outer surface a strange theatricality that does not permit any kind of aside with the language of the renaissance." - gianni pettena
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Thursday, 12 November 09 - 09:23 PM (GMT -06:00) By ro / lu in art |
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gianni pettena : pettena - arnolfo dialogue, 1968
the republic of florence built san giovanni valderno during the late 13th century as a fortification point. san giovanni valderno's layout, a main thoroughfare and central piazza, mimicked the classical roman town. by the 1960's, florence and the surrounding region remained a bastion of classicism. it was here, in 1968 gianni pettena decided to interrupt and challenge the antiquated language of traditional italian architecture. in the portico of the palazzo comunale, pettena installed large patterned panels, which stood out in striking contrast to the old city monument. pettena among many other architects and artists at the time aimed to liberate architecture from its traditional moors via acts of isolation, rejection, and destruction of architectural language. further up the arno river from san giovanni valderno, at the ponte vecchio in florence, gruppo 9999 put on their own exhibition of derision.
gianni pettena : pettena - arnolfo dialogue, 1968
gruppo 9999: projections on the ponte vecchio, 1968
the gestures in gruppo 9999 and pettena's work seem to be a new design typology, that of rebellion. just as elementarism marked the separation from de stijl when the level lines of mondrain were rotated, radical architects defiantly tilted the orthogonal lines of modernism and classical architecture. they contrasted the stability of classical architecture with ephemeral materials like balloons, paint and projections. mobility and transience became the trademark of many radical architects.
enjoy the weekend.
posted by nicolas allinder
Wang,Ya-hui is primarily a video and video installation artist. Her work is driven by the exploration of human consciousness and examines how hidden or conscious changes of “being” are triggered through illusion and imagination. Her installations often...
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Thursday, 12 November 09 - 04:02 PM (GMT -06:00) By ro / lu in art |
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sunshine on tranquility video installation，4'36 2005 by wang ya-hui
via vvork
please enjoy.
posted by matt olson
"ON WEDNESDAY NOVEMBER 11TH DRIVE THIS SCULPTURE TO WISCONSIN AND LEAN IT AGAINST SOMETHING" - FROM A "DESTINATION SPECIFIC SCULPTURE" IN THE LEE WALTON SHOW CURRENTLY UP AT THE OLSON GALLERY CALLED "MOMENTARY PERFORMANCES AND THINGS THAT LAST LONGER" ...
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Thursday, 12 November 09 - 09:07 AM (GMT -06:00) By ro / lu in art |
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part of the lee walton show i recently wrote about here are some "destination specific" sculptures. large, brightly colored, primary shape-esque plywood pieces with a date and directions for their removal from the gallery written on them. so here we go...
here's from an interview i did with lee...
me - i love the "destination specific floor sculptures". can you talk a bit about them? will the instructions actually be executed?
lee walton - As for the deinstallation of the plywood sculptures, they will definitely be executed. You can help if you want. note - rolu will be deinstalling and documenting some of the sculptures.
A funny thing happened as I was planning the show. At a certain point i realized that nothing in the show looked like ART. So, I had this inclination to create a set of large minimal ellsworth Kelly, john McCracken style sculptures. I have always wished i could do this sort of thing.
All the pieces were made by Caylon, a student at Bethel. We worked together over the phone and email. The goal was to make things that looked like ART. They also had to be just awkward enough that one person couldn't carry them alone.
When I called and asked Michelle (michelle westmark - the olson gallery curator) about them, I asked "do they look like ART?" She laughed. YES!
So, yes.. they will be discarded appropriately. I originally thought about discarding everyday objects, such as chairs, toasters, a pillow - things like that. But it seemed more fun to discard ART. Plus, the actual spectacle of seeing somebody carry this thing down the street will become another Momentary Performance of sorts. I like when the art bleeds into real life just enough.
mission accomplished. too bad our new winter intern doesn't start until next week. this day would have been a great intro to life at the rolu studio...
experientialist indeed.
please enjoy the day.
posted by matt olson
In 1965 David Sellers and Bill Rienecke, freshly graduated from the Yale School of Arch, moved to Vermont to build something. They bought 450 acres. The name came when architect, John Lucas, sat on a thorny bush - Prickly Mountain was born...
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Wednesday, 11 November 09 - 08:20 AM (GMT -06:00) By ro / lu in architecture |
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In 1965 David Sellers and Bill Rienecke, freshly graduated from the Yale School of Architecture, came to Vermont looking to build something. They were attracted to Vermont as much by the skiing and partying as the opportunity to build without the restrictions of zoning regulations or planning commissions. They discovered 450 acres, mostly abandoned farmland and unimproved forest that they were able to buy for $1,000 down apiece. The name came when another architect friend, John Lucas, sat down on a raspberry bush and—ouch!—Prickly Mountain was born.
please enjoy.
posted by matt olson
"The famous Zen parable about the master for whom, before his studies, mountains were only mountains, but during his studies mountains were no longer mountains, and afterward mountains were again mountains could be interpreted as an allegory about...
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Tuesday, 10 November 09 - 08:38 AM (GMT -06:00) By ro / lu in architecture |
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after about 500 posts here at the rolu blog, the one i most consistently get questions and comments about is this story i posted last winter about a mountain retreat outside hanoi in tam dao vietnam. i interviewed my friend duc nguyen who designed it and lives there part time.
he recently shared some pics of life around his place in tam dao and his mother has moved in. seeing these pictures made me really, really happy today.
all of the previous pictures i'd seen of the place in tam dao had such a hushed, serene and almost mystical feeling... seeing these pictures adds a human complexity to my idea of the place that makes it even more beautiful.
please enjoy.
posted by matt olson
The sanctuary, central, towers over the two sides that are the choir of nuns and space of the faithful: this may be the humble to the transcendence of God. Le clocher ne comporte aucun ornement, pas plus que les autres parties de la construction. The to
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Monday, 09 November 09 - 11:36 AM (GMT -06:00) By ro / lu in architecture |
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more on the last post... caramel of st. saulve by hungarian artist pierre szekely (1923-2001) and architect claude guislain valenciennes.
originally via: architectures de sartes postales and more at Caramel of St. Saulve.
please enjoy.
posted by matt olson
The single circular window placed on the side of the street is open to the world, if present inside the prayer of the Carmelites. A travers les vitraux de verre organique, matière plus légère que celle des vitraux classiques, le soleil dessine des...
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Monday, 09 November 09 - 10:50 AM (GMT -06:00) By ro / lu in architecture |
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today is this pic of the sun high above montastère du caramel of st. saulve
and this song: sun was high (so was i) by best coast
please enjoy.
more on this tomorrow.
posted by matt olson
"'a painting is not art simply because it is made of oil and paint or because it is on canvas,' he said. indeed, one day in 1955, when he was so broke he could not afford to buy a canvas, rauschenberg stretched his bed quilt over a frame."
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Thursday, 05 November 09 - 10:28 PM (GMT -06:00) By ro / lu in art |
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"some call him pig" 1971
in 1971, several years after rauschenberg transformed his bed into art, giannia pettena moved to minneapolis armed with sardonic wit and arte povera sensibilities. the same sensibilities michelangelo pistoletto brought to the walker in 1966. pettena must have viewed the world similarly to rauschenburg and pistoletto, who became known for wrapping bricks in fabric remnants. in "some call him pig" pettena playfully highlighted an unnoticed interpretation of the prominent downtown billboard inteded to honor the police. but his boldest work would be encasing a condemned school and an inconspicuous home in ice.
"ice house I" 1971
in the case of the school, pettena's act of alchemy would transform an object without altering its essence. "the appearance of the architecture was maintained, and yet dematerialized since a new natural element was laid over the original material of the facade... the school preserved its... typical form of that typology, but once coated in ice it was the material that transformed it: it came alive, for it had been worked by nature."
"ice hosue II" 1972
pettena was interested in exploring the relationship between natural and man-made phenomena, much in the vein of artists like walter de maria. however, unlike de maria's earthroom where nature is contained by man, pettena's ice house projects were clearly the work of an italian who came to minnesota and quickly realized the imposing character of the cold. needless to say, he left in '72.
enjoy the weekend.
posted by nicolas allinder
Afin de poursuivre notre action de protection du centre commercial de Sens dessiné par monsieur Claude Parent j'ai fait éditer une carte postale de soutien qui doit agir comme une pétition amusante et décalée. (J'espère...) J'ai volontairement choisi une
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Wednesday, 04 November 09 - 07:45 PM (GMT -06:00) By ro / lu in architecture |
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“This supermarket is the real application of the oblique function theories worked out by the architect Claude Parent. By protecting it we safeguard one of the most significant works of the modern and contemporary architecture. This work belongs to all of us”.
The GEM supermarket is in Sens, France, and was built in 1970. Just as much of the contemporary anti-charming architecture, it runs the risk to be destroyed or tampered. You can ask archipostcard to receive the petition/postcard and send it to the DRAC for a chance to turn this concrete beauty into an historical monument.
via atelier
posted by matt olson
Art is a form of knowledge. There’s this odd dichotomy, that a work of art should be both complete in itself, but should also have implications or associations beyond itself. Some artists rely solely on ambiguity. Mostly figurative artists. This kind...
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Tuesday, 03 November 09 - 11:58 AM (GMT -06:00) By ro / lu in art |
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Electromagnetic Energy Field (1968) - robert barry
"Displayed in a vitrine, a battery-powered transmitter encased in a nondescript metal box sends out waves of energy, filling the gallery space with an invisible, immeasurable, but nonetheless real force. Perched between spiritualism and physics, the device is intended to create a literally charged atmosphere. "
please enjoy.
posted by matt olson
In a dream last night, I saw a great storm. It seized the scaffolding. It tore the cross-clasps, the iron ones, down. But what was made of wood, swayed and remained. - Bertolt Brecht - Im Traum heute Nacht. Sah ich einen grosen Sturm. Ins Baugerüst...
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Tuesday, 03 November 09 - 09:04 AM (GMT -06:00) By ro / lu in architecture |
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"The house is not strong or heavy – it is weak and flexible. It is also not closing the environment out, but designed to give the farmers a needed shelter.
chen house by marco cassagrande and frank chen
In a dream last night, I saw a great storm. It seized the scaffolding. It tore the cross-clasps, the iron ones, down. But what was made of wood, swayed and remained. - Bertolt Brecht
posted by matt olson
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Monday, 02 November 09 - 08:37 AM (GMT -06:00) By ro / lu in art |
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page 110 by rosemary mayer
from 0 to 9 issue number six july 1969
published by vito acconci and bernadette mayer
posted by matt olson
"A performance at the Campo Urbano event. Munari invites participants to the top of a tower to throw pieces of paper of different forms folded in different ways to fall to the earth following trajectories that are never the same, thus visualizing the air
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Friday, 30 October 09 - 07:41 AM (GMT -06:00) By ro / lu in art |
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showing the air (1969) - bruno munari
"A performance at the Campo Urbano event. Munari invites participants to the top of a tower to throw pieces of paper of different forms folded in different ways to fall to the earth following trajectories that are never the same, thus visualizing the air in Piazza Duomo"
posted by matt olson
There is a place in Portugal that used to be called o fin do mundo (the end of the world). It was thought that this is where the land ended and the sea began (onde a terra acaba e o mar começa). A one minute hand held video of the ocean was shot at...
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Friday, 30 October 09 - 07:35 AM (GMT -06:00) By ro / lu in art |
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"There is a place in Portugal that used to be called o fin do mundo (the end of the world). It was thought that this is where the land ended and the sea began (onde a terra acaba e o mar começa). A one minute hand held video of the ocean was shot at this location and can be downloaded here:
http://davidhorvitz.com/free/portugal.mov.
Download the video, burn it to a DVD, put it inside a DVD player inside a store that sells televisions, press play, put it on repeat, and leave it. "
via 2009
please enjoy.
posted by matt olson
My Father's Diary - On his deathbed a man gives his daughter a book, a precious book, filled with texts, signs, diagrams, drawings. "This is my diary..." he starts to tell her, but too weak to give additional information he closes his eyes... forever.
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Thursday, 29 October 09 - 08:04 AM (GMT -06:00) By ro / lu in art |
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guy de cointet
posted by matt olson
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