A MISHMASH (AGAIN!)

A Kindergarten with vertical colored exterior tubes

I thought to write about architecture.  I’ll try to stay on topic but my mind is wandering (wondering?) into everybody else’s backyard.  My nose pricks at the possibilities.  But here goes.

The 2017 Pritzker Prize for Architecture was awarded to a trio of Spanish architects that nobody ever heard of before and there is some hope that this signals the end of “starchitecture.”  

I’ve loved good architecture always but I’ve come to have serious concerns about the field after walking through too many buildings that are all about “look at me” and not enough about “how do I make you feel and how do you relate to people while you’re here.”  A good building should lift one’s spirits and incite delight. Architect and writer Susan Susanka “gets” it. Read her small house books - popular long before “small” became fashionable. 

Anyway, Rafael Aranda, Carne Pigem and Ramon Vilatla (RCR Arquitectes) use a lot of recycled material which I always applaud. Their buildings are simple shapes and here are a few photographs of award winners.

art center  built inside castle walls

RCR Arquitectes, Winners of 2017 Pritzker Prize 

`````````````````

Meanwhile, across the globe, Banksy - remember him? He’s the British satirical graffiti artist who works under cover of night and anonymity to comment of social and political ills.  His tongue-in-cheek talent turned to designing The Walled Off Hotel.  The hotel was finished in secret by Palestinians in Bethlehem only a few feet away from the west bank barrier wall commonly called the Apartheid Wall.  You can actually stay overnight in a Bunker for $30 a night - after putting up a $1000 security deposit. 

Tongue-in-cheek? Bullet in head! I saw headlines about the hotel opening in several news sources; I didn’t hear anything about how hard reservations  are to get. Aside: Charlie Booker and Diane Shakespeare , art critics, write about Banksy “(he) glorifies what is essentially vandalism; his work looks dazzlingly clever to idiots.” Hmmm…I’m not the only person who isn’t totally sold on graffiti art it seems.

``````````````````````````

Room with painted mural

Guest room in the bunker

Tamara Kostianovsky is from Argentina and immigrated to Philadelphia in 2000 to study art.  Shortly after she arrived, the international market for pesos dropped through the rabbit hole and she found herself too poor to purchase art materials so she turned to what she already owned:  clothing, towels, upholstery bits.  From these she fashioned sculpture - specifically weird dead birds - in a statement about consumerism and the environment.

An exhibit of her work is on view at Y Gallery, New York, until the end of March.  (Yes, these pictures of her sculpture are all made of cloth. No real birds were harmed.)

A MASH UP

The Little Library competition, Italian entry

Have you noticed those little boxes sitting atop posts in some neighborhoods, what at first look like mail boxes but not?  These might be “Little Free Libraries.” The first one was built in 2009 in Hudson, Wisconsin.  Todd Bol placed a birdhouse sized box full of books on top of a post on his lawn, shared his idea with partner Rick Brooks and the rest (as the cliche says) is history.

Little Free Libraries became a nonprofit organization in 2012, quickly won all kinds of kudos from such places as the Library of Congress and today, there are more than 50,000 of these small weathertight boxes standing on neighborhood lawns throughout 70 countries. 

What good idea couldn’t stand a little improvement?  Last year, the American Institute of Architects opened a competition for designers from around the globe to design unique “little libraries.”  The containers had to appeal to both kids and grown ups, could be any size, shape or form, but be equipped with lights. 300 submissions poured in from 40 countries; the first place winner was a four foot oval that holds forty books, designed by a firm in London. 

Here are two entires that did not win - one from Italy and the other from China.  For information on how to become a part of this effort, go to their web site at littlefreelibraries.org. 

`````````````````````````

Little Library competition entry, China

Collage: a technique of art production where the artwork is made from piecing together smaller sections of a variety of materials, affixing these to a backing (canvas, paper, wood) to create an entirely new art “picture.” 

I love collage…I love quilts which I include in collage…I love the combination of materials that popped up in sculpture 30 or more years ago.

It’s always thrilling to discover new artists whose work is fresh - especially if they work in this genre.

Check out David Shrobe’s collage exhibit (hyperallergic.com) and read the description by Seph Rodney “…elements in his works that are evocative of other artists, like flavor notes I recognize for having tasted them before in other wines.”

(Don't you love that " flavor notes I’ve tasted before" bit?)

Collage by David Shrobe

Detail of another David Shrobe collage

Gina Adams is a descendant of John Adams, part American Indian and a working artist. She’s turned antique quilts, purchased at flea markets, into subversive folk art.

Adams was caught up in news of the Dakota pipe line protests and spent time looking up past treaties the U.S. government struck with Native American Tribes.  She hand-cut calico letters repeating these abandoned promises and appliquéd them to the quilts in a spiraling maze of meaning/history.  A solo exhibition of her art is on view at Colorado’s Naropa University in Boulder, Colorado.   

Broken Promises quilt installation, Naropa University

Broken Treaty Quilt: Fort Laramie (detail) by Gina Adams