Monday 30 May 2011

Sunday 29 May 2011

Patrick Keiller - London (1992)



(only footage i found, this film is brilliant)

Friday 27 May 2011

Endless House - Frederick Kiesler





"Imagine a voluptuously shaped, womb-like house on stilts, with curved walls indistinguishable from floors and ceilings; with sand, pebble, wood, grass and tile floors; with bathing pools instead of baths; with coloured lenses and mirrors bringing light into organically shaped rooms. This was Frederick Kiesler's 1959 vision of the Endless House, never built - it was far too surreal for that - yet worked on in intriguing drawings until the architect's death in 1965. It remains a house of endless speculation and possibilities." Jonathan Glancey

Einstein tower



"Opened in 1924, this curious, boot-like building in Potsdam, Germany, was designed to test Albert Einstein's theory of relativity. A telescope in the observatory caught cosmic rays that were reflected by mirrors to the "spectrographic" equipment in the basement." Jonathan Glancey

Palais ideal-Ferdinand cheval




"A village postman from the remote Drome province of southern France, Ferdinand Cheval (1836-1924) spent 33 years creating an "ideal palace" from stones gathered on his daily 32km round. Poorly educated and with no knowledge of architecture, he shaped his surreal palace from daydreams, without help.

Considered a madman by fellow locals (whose descendents live off his legacy today, the palace being a big tourist attraction), Cheval was hailed by artists and intellectuals, from Breton and the surrealists to Picasso. Here was - and is - a work of wholly spontaneous surrealist art, a man's dreams turned into a gloriously abstract work of architecture.The Palais Idéal is overwhelmingly bizarre, its handmade architecture drawing its inspiration from what appear to be sources as diverse as Khmer temples, Swiss chalets, Neuschwanstein castle in Bavaria and Hindu shrines - despite Cheval's lack of learning, books or photographs. Some of the palace looks as if Gaudí had a hand in it, and the petrified fountain could easily be by Dalí. Today, Cheval's lifelong work is a national monument." Jonathan Glancey

Tuesday 24 May 2011

I'm New Here, Gil Scott-Heron




I did not become someone different
That I did not want to be
But I'm new here
Will you show me around

No matter how far wrong you've gone
You can always turn around
Met a woman in a bar
Told her I was hard to get to know
And near impossible to forget
She said I had an ego on me
The size of Texas
[ Lyrics from: http://www.lyricsmode.com/lyrics/g/gil_scott_heron/im_new_here.html ]
Well I'm new here and I forget
Does that mean big or small

No matter how far wrong you've gone You can always tournaround

And I'm shedding plates like a snake
And it may be crazy but I'm
The closest thing I have
To a voice of reason

Turnaround turnaround turnaround
And you may come full circle
And be new here again

Monday 23 May 2011

martin creed at the ica, i just have a thing for scottish people


If you're lonely...

Work... this is work. This is hard work. Talking about work is work.
Thinking is work. Words are work. Words are things, shapes. It's hard
to compose them, to put them in any kind of order. Words don't add up.
Numbers add up! Things are everywhere. Everything is something,
everything has something, but not everyone has someone. It's hard to
distinguish between things, to separate things. I'm in a soup of
thoughts, feelings and things, and words. Actually, it's more like a
purée... or thick and stiff, like a paté. I'm in a paté and it's hard
to move. It needs a lot of work to get out of it — or to separate it
and find something in it. Thoughts, thoughts, sometimes I want to stop
them, but it's hard to stop them. It's work. Dealing with thoughts,
that's work.
Thoughts, thoughts, don't come! Stop! Please! When you're going to
sleep and you can't stop thinking, thoughts queueing up, that's when
you need drugs — or a notebook.


I want something to ease the pain. I want to get out of my head.


Smoking used to help. For a long time smoking made my life bearable. I
gave up smoking because I couldn't do it enough. I couldn't smoke
enough. It was never enough. I wanted to smoke all the time, to breathe
in all the time, but I couldn't, not in the shower, not when I was
talking, not when I was eating. I wanted something I could do all the
time. Not smoking, that was something I could do all the time.
I am an addict in search of drugs.


Maybe working is trying, and work — the result of work — is everything
that one tries to do. Trying... looking for excitement, or trying to
handle it and use it to get out of the paté. Trying to do things;
talking. Or maybe testing is a good way of putting it: testing things
out. Testing things out by putting things about, and all the time
trying, hoping to be excited, wanting. Wanting is what makes me work:
excitement, desire for something.


Sometimes people say: 'What the fuck do you think you're doing? That's
not art.'
I say: 'Fuck off, assholes!'


Assholes... they are something to get excited about, something to work
for.
Work is a fight against loneliness, against low self esteem, against
depression, and against staying in bed. Sometimes my self esteem is so
low that I cannot reach it even when I'm feeling down.


I want to be on my own, but I don't want to be alone.


Work is everything, I think. Everything is work. Everything that
involves energy, mental or physical. So... everything, apart from being
dead. Living...


I don't know how anyone can do it.
How can anyone get through it?
I can see why people hide.
I can see why people commit suicide.


If you're lonely,
If you're sad,
If you're lovely,
If you're mad,


Then this is for you.


Text taken from his WEBSITE .

Monday 16 May 2011

sometimes google maps is genius

ESOPUS

Although the virtual version is no where close the printed one, you can read some of the articles and see some of the images,  have a read at the TELEVISION ISSUE .

And then tell me if its interesting, cos I have no time to read it, I  just flicked through it at the Tate's bookshop and wished I could buy it as well as the other books I already had in my hand.

I choose the books, 3 for 2 ...  little pocket books, perfect for before sleeping:

1.-  An Apology for Idlers by Robert Louis Stevenson,  which already at page 9 probes to be hilarious.

2.- The pleasure of Hating by William Hazlitt

3.- The work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction by Walter Benjamin.




Thursday 5 May 2011