Untitled, 2009 [from "Architectural Renderings"]
© David La Spina
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David La Spina: Architectural Renderings
February 16, 2010 – 4:38 pm
Marc Henrich: Sunday in Vientiane
June 6, 2009 – 12:05 am
Ban Sissavath, Street 7, Vientiane, 2009 [from "Sunday in Vientiane"]
© Marc Henrich
Marc Henrich wrote to tell me about his latest project entitled Sunday in Vientiane, which he describes in these words:
Taken mostly on Sundays, when the town is resting, these images of buildings in and around Vientiane, Laos present an unsentimental view of this city’s history through architecture. The sobering clarity and understated simplicity of these meticulous compositions are a testament to the quiet but brutal passage of time. The worn and faded facades allude to other times: the historical, the political, the cultural and the social — each building revealing a fragment of the city’s colonial past.
See more of Marc’s work here.
Toshio Shibata: Prefectures
November 16, 2008 – 10:19 pm
The work of Japanese photographer Toshio Shibata was unknown to me until recently when I had the pleasure of viewing one his large-scale photographs up close and personal, pulled from the MFA‘s collection here in Boston. His black and white images of “Prefectures” are beautifully seen.
Yunotani Village, Niigata Prefecture, 1989
© Toshio Shibata
Ootaki Village, Nagano Prefecture, 1996
© Toshio Shibata
Shiratori Town, Gifu Prefecture, 1995
© Toshio Shibata
Honkawane Town, Shizuoka Prefecture, 1997
© Toshio Shibata
Hinoemata Village, Fukushima Prefecture, 1996
© Toshio Shibata
See more of Toshio’s work, including images from his other projects American Images, Polaroid Type 55, Japanese Landscapes, Hinohara Village, Tokyo and Orientalism, right here.
Alec Soth: Thirty-three Theatres and a Funeral Home
September 24, 2008 – 7:59 pm
Lynn Theater, Gonzalez, Texas, 2006
© Alec Soth
Alec Soth recently updated his website with a body of work that was commissioned by Magnum in 2006, entitled Thirty-three Theatres and a Funeral Home – a series of photographs exploring the architecture of abandoned movie theaters in Texas, inspired by the films of of Wim Wenders.
Take a look.
Georges Rousse: Bending Space
August 18, 2008 – 11:59 pm
I was chatting with Michael Bühler-Rose (who, if you haven’t noticed, is currently holding down the fort for Laurel) and we got to talking about this installation piece posted on VVORK. “You just can’t look away,” Michael said. Seeing Mai Hofstad Gunnes‘ piece made me think of the work of French photographer George Rousse. Which reminded me… Georges Rousse’s work is pretty incredible.
Russelheim, 2003
© Georges Rousse
© Georges Rousse
A nice description of his process, via Wikipedia:
Rousse’s work, from the 1990s to today, generally appears at first glance to be photos of desolate or abandoned spaces (buildings, rooms, parking garages or streetscapes) often on their way to the wrecking ball, on which the artist has superimposed precise geometrical shapes or squiggly graffiti.
However, this is an intended illusion: what Rousse does is to paint these designs onto the abandoned spaces before taking the photo, correcting for such things as the slope of floors or the interruption of beams, so that the painted designs come together to produce the illusion of a simple, flat design floating on the surface of the photo.
A few more examples:
Réel, 2003
© Georges Rousse
Köln, 2002
© Georges Rousse
Dravert, 2007
© Georges Rousse
© Georges Rousse
Take a look at more of his photographs here (in a film about his work), here, here and here. I also highly recommend picking up Contacts (Vol. 3) to hear him talk about his work. And if you’re into Rousse, you’ll probably like Felice Varini.
David Byrne: Playing the Building
June 1, 2008 – 2:42 pm
David Byrne’s Playing the Building, 2008
© Justin Ouellette
To say that David Byrne is a prolific artist is an understatement. The work just keeps coming. His latest piece, a 9,000-square-foot, interactive, site-specific installation entitled Playing the Building, “transforms the interior of the landmark Battery Maritime Building in Lower Manhattan into a massive sound sculpture that all visitors are invited to sit and ‘play.’”
The project consists of a retrofitted antique organ, placed in the center of the building’s cavernous second-floor gallery, that controls a series of devices attached to its structural features – metal beams, plumbing, electrical conduits, and heating and water pipes. These machines vibrate, strike, and blow across the building’s elements, triggering unique harmonics and producing finely tuned sounds.
Brilliant. Check out this video to see/hear it in action.
Find out more about Playing the Building here (don’t miss the interview).
UPDATE: Here is another interview with Byrne where you can hear him talk about the piece (thanks Sarah!):
Andy Freeberg: Sentry
November 1, 2007 – 10:50 pm
Mitchell Innes & Nash, 2006 (from “Sentry”)
© Andy Freeberg
Andy Freeberg‘s Sentry captures what was, for me, the very feeling I had when I first visited the galleries in Chelsea. With these photographs, he addresses the intersection of art and architecture (specifically in its relation to the human presence and communication). He writes about the project,
It was an odd moment when I walked into that first gallery in Chelsea and saw a large white desk with a head poking up from the top edge of the computer screen. I took out my camera, carefully framing and exposing the scene, and the head never moved or took notice of my gaze. As I walked around that booming Chelsea neighborhood of art galleries, I began to notice a trend: at some of the biggest galleries there are giant entry desks, where the top of the head of the desk sitter is often the only other human presence. This leads me to wonder, in this digital world of email and instant messaging that supposedly makes us more connected, are we also setting up barriers to the simple eye to eye contact that affirms our humanity?
Interestingly, this series was on display at Danziger Projects (in Chelsea) through the month of September. I wish I hadn’t missed the show – to get to see the work in context, as “site-specific,” may have been nice:
installation view of Sentry at Danziger Projects, 2007
© Andy Freeberg
Take a look at the rest of the images on Andy’s website.
Jim Dow’s “Capital Architectures” Opens Tonight
September 25, 2007 – 4:20 pm
L: Entrance to Women’s Bathroom, Mercado Flores Magón, Naucalpan, Mexico State, 2005
R: Entrance to Men’s Bathroom, Retiro Train Station, Recoleta, Beuneos Aires, 1987
© Jim Dow
If you’re in the Boston area tonight, don’t miss photographer and Museum School professor Jim Dow‘s opening for Capital Architectures, photographs from Buenos Aires and Mexico City. Jim has been working on this project for over ten years, having made in those years fifteen trips to Argentina and Mexico. The show will be on display at Harvard’s DRCLAS.
Jim will be giving a brief talk at 6pm followed by the opening with music by Sol y Canto. If you miss tonight’s event, the work will still be up all the way through January 31, 2008.
Jim Dow: Capital Architectures (Buenos Aires / Mexico City)
David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies
CGIS South Building, Second Floor
1730 Cambridge Street
Cambridge, MA
Michel Bonvin: Confession
September 6, 2007 – 10:16 pm
Untitled, 2004 (from “Confession”)
© Michel Bonvin
Michel Bonvin has lots of good work, but I’d recommend looking at Confession, Michel’s images of confession booth design.
Ryan Boatright: Exurbia
July 16, 2007 – 6:38 pm
(from “Exurbia”), 2005
© Ryan Boatright
(from “Exurbia”), 2005
© Ryan Boatright
Ryan Boatright‘s project entitled Exurbia considers the formal commonnality of design inherent in the architecture of middle to upper-middle class American houses. Ryan refers to these structures are being “fortress-like,” and is interested in how the builders construct homes of similar design for “occupants who in turn conform to neighborhood codes and restrictions.”
When I envision familial relationships, I picture the spaces around them, the spaces that mold them. For twenty-one years, I lived in the same suburban neighborhood in Louisville, Kentucky. I vividly remember these surroundings. Unfortunately, as I departed, my parents relocated to a large exurban neighborhood twenty-three miles outside of the city; because my definition of ‘home’ was altered, I began to critique my parents’ situation and the American phenomenon of moving “up and out.”
See more from this series here.
