Museum of Innocence
When I heard that the novel The Museum of Innocence had spawned a real museum, opening in Istanbul later this year to coincide with the city’s Capital of Culture celebrations, I was disappointed. I pictured an intellectual theme park to which fans of Orhan Pamuk’s novels, now translated into more than 50 languages, would make [...]
Kinetic Art of the Future
Like Time Lords, the boffins have regenerated… and this time, they’re artists! That’s one conclusion to draw from the Kinetica Art Fair , (4 – 7 February), dedicated to kinetic, cybernetic, electronic and light art in the P3 Gallery situated deep in the concrete underbelly of the University of Westminster campus in London. The first [...]
Ghostvillage
In the January issue of Blueprint, we included graffiti artist collective Agents of Change in our list of 25 who will change architecture and design in 2010. For its Ghostvillage project in October 2009, the group created paintings on the walls throughout the abandoned village of Polphail in south-west Scotland. The project was carried out [...]
Change in 2010
In the run up to the general election, the term change will be much used and abused at Westminster. As Brendan O’Neill, editor of the independent political site, Spiked, points out, Gordon Brown used the word nearly 50 times in his speech to the Labour Party Conference; Peter Mandelson used it 38 times, and David Cameron has claimed to be launching a ‘movement for change’.
Search for a Condemned Building
Following on from the success of Seizure, Roger Hiorn’s Turner Prize nominated blue crystal cave in a one-bedroom council flat in Elephant & Castle, London-based arts producer Artangel is searching for a very particular type of building for its next project with an internationally acclaimed British artist.
The building Artangel needs is ideally a large – [...]
Man and Machine
In a recent lecture at the Barbican in London, American designer/artist James Wines declared that the Age of Industry, in which we were fascinated by machinery, is over and that we are now beginning an Age of Ecology, where we will rediscover our relationship with nature. It’s a widely held view that humanity lost touch with the natural environment during the 20th century, and that industrial development has damaged the planet almost to the point of no return.
Urban Utopias
A city of artificial hills, with towers peaking above the clouds in permanent sunshine, is the vision drawn by Anna Boldina, winner of Blueprint and the Royal Academy’s Paper City competition. Boldina, who is an urban design graduate from Moscow, has lived in London for one year and was inspired to draw her idea after seeing [...]
Full Circle on the Underground
For the majority of its patrons, King’s Cross St. Pancras Underground Station is a badly designed labyrinth, a chore to navigate and, on the whole, best avoided. However, the pain that comes from being dragged along its undercurrent of tourists and commuters could soon be relieved after tonight’s unveiling of Full Circle (below) by [...]
Ceramic artist Stephen Dixon at the V&A
When I met Stephen Dixon in his studio at London’s Victoria and Albert (V&A) museum, he had just moved in and was working on a large-scale bust of Queen Victoria. Enlisting the help of the visiting public, the piece has been decorated with broken pieces of crockery. Dixon, who trained as a fine artist at [...]
Mike Ballard and The All of Everything
The Arts Gallery on Bond Street will close in March 2010 and will be demolished to make way for Crossrail. The gallery, part of the University of the Arts London, has hosted shows by Peter Blake, Gavin Turk and Chris Olifili amongst others. For the final show, which will opens on 10 December, on the [...]
Bunker by Robert Kusmirowski
As part of Polska! Year in the UK, Robert Kusmirowski has undertaken his first UK show, entitled Bunker. The Lodz-born artist has created an installation based upon a World War Two-era bunker that transforms the Barbican’s Curve gallery into a new territory. The bunker is littered with artefacts and objects that lie rusted, distorted and [...]
Pop Art and Publishing by Eduardo Paolozzi
As publishing goes through a prolonged bout of self-doubt, this exhibition of Eduardo Paolozzi’s work for the literary magazine Ambit is a timely reminder of what it can be. It’s not just news journalists in war zones who write the first page of history, but poets, editors and illustrators of avant-garde poetry publications such as Ambit.
Richard Wilson’s deceptive architecture
Walking past the intersection of Kingsway and Sardinia Street in London’s Holborn you could easily miss the new installation by Richard Wilson. On the corner of the London School of Economic’s (LSE) New Academic Building is Square the Block, a striking but subtle addition to the original building. The installation stems from the LSE’s long tradition [...]
James Wines: Drawing and Architecture
Next week James Wines, artist and founder of SITE Environmental Design, will be giving a rare talk in London on the subject Economy of Means: A Brief History of Doing More with Less in Art, Architecture and Landscape Design. Part of the Architecture Foundation’s series Radical Nature: Contemporary Visions, the event on Monday 5 October will be chaired by Blueprint editor Vicky Richardson.
Thomas Demand’s Paper Architecture
In July Thomas Demand’s studio – set in a vast warehouse in the Mitte district of Berlin – was home to a 3m-tall replica of a church organ made from coloured paper. When I visited, the finishing touches were being made by the artist and his team of assistants, perfecting the thousands of pipes, pedals and meticulously recreated keys; a camera stand was positioned directly opposite, ready to capture the end result.
The Campaign for Drawing’s 10th Anniversary
The Campaign for Drawing’s, Now We Are Ten: 10th Anniversary exhibition has opened at the Idea Generation Gallery in Shoreditch, London. The exhibition shows the unique work produced by some of the UK’s best-known and up-and-coming artists, illustrators and cartoonists since The Campaign for Drawing’s inauguration in October 2000.
Sixty new works have been donated for the [...]
Playing the Building by David Byrne
The Roundhouse has been host to many musical events, including David Byrne’s first UK gig with Talking Heads in 1976, but today a pump organ sits in the centre of the room. Coloured tubes, looking like veins, are attached to it. Each colour connects to a mechanical device fixed to different parts of the building. [...]
Jan de Cock: Don’t Mention the Chipboard
After working with the material for most of his professional life (albeit he is just 32), Jan de Cock wants to talk about something other than chipboard. ‘Would you ask Rubens why he uses oil paint?’, de Cock complains vociferously. It’s clear that a lot is at stake with this new exhibition, which he has been working on for nearly two years, and tensions are running high.
Radical Nature and Richard long
Let ecology inspire artists, let biology be the blueprint for architects. If Radical Nature had a manifesto, that might be it. The Barbican’s show charts the vogue for eco-design with works dating back to 1969, before global warming was even on the international agenda. Two years earlier in 1967, English artist Richard Long had made [...]
Vitra Workshop Comes to London
Vitra and Blueprint present the Audile Interpretation Workshop: An Exploration into Sound and Environment.
During the London Design Festival, the spirit of the Boisbuchet workshops will be recreated at Vitra’s base in Clerkenwell. Architect ODA, in association with sound artist Craig Vear and designer Andrew Lock, will explore sonic experience with groups of students and professionals. How [...]
