James Turrell Skypespace at Rice University

Margo Sawyer

Margo Sawyer

Passive House

Last week we went on an excellent Creative Sustainability Tour given by the Institute for Creative Sustainability. More information here: http://id22.net/en/

Favorite stop: Passivhaus Schoenholzer Strasse (pictured above). More information at http://deo-berlin.de/

Hiroshima: Ground Zero 1945 | International Center of Photography

Hiroshima: Ground Zero 1945 | International Center of Photography

Once-Classified Photos of Ground Zero Hiroshima

Commissioner of Good Taste

In two weeks we'll be in Cinque Terre where the colors of houses are regulated by the a commissioner of good taste in the regional government. Really.

Architecture + Art at UCSD

Kyong Park. 24620. Ongoing.

24620, a Kyong Park project, is an abandoned house from Detroit in search of a new home. The house was cut up so that it could be moved and re-assembled anywhere in the world. It is a 'fugitive house,' running from the city of Detroit, which has destroyed or burned more than two hundred thousand homes in the last fifty years.

24620 desperately extends its existence by travelling. Its first journey was made in April, 2001, when it crossed the Atlantic Ocean, and was re-constructed and presented in the 3rd annual Archilab exhibition in Orléans, France. Since then, it has been to five other European cities, and continues on.

With its pieces misplaced and their incisions permanent, the house, when re-assembled, replicates the condition of a dysfunctional city in the violence of dismembered spaces. Wherever it may go, the house takes the ideals and failures of modernism with it, creating discourses on the cultural state and destiny of each community.

Architecture folks affiliated with my alma mater, UCSD. Important work. Hurrah.

Teddy Cruz
Kyong Park
James Enos
Sam Kronic

Metastadt

I'm working a new series of images related to my Sherwin Series, but inspired by domestic space, especially public housing in or near to Berlin. I'm especially fascinated by a project called Metastadt constructed Wulfen, 30 minutes west of the Bauhaus' second home, Dessau. The best description of the project is on this site about flexible housing at http://www.afewthoughts.co.uk/flexiblehousing/

I love the flexibility of the structure, and its tragic end, despite its utopian beginnings.

Influences on my drawing style these days:
1) Artists like David Shrigley
2) The repeated drawing of the Brandenburg Gate on the windows of the U1 trains here in Berlin

Everything You Ever Wanted to Know But Were Afraid to Ask

Owen Mundy and I sent images this week to two international group shows at the Golden Thread Gallery in Belfast, Northern Ireland, U.K. and the Raccolte Frugone Museum in Genoa, Italy. We were invited to submit proposals that “could not be realized” to Sean Miller, who curated the exhibitions as part of his John Erickson Museum of Art project.

Our process involved first constructing a 3-dimensional model of the space. Owen did this using Google SketchUp.



Then we filled this template with our proposals. Two variations resulted.

JEMA.3333, 11×8.5″, archival inkjet on paper, 2010



Everything You Ever Wanted to Know But Were Afraid to Ask, 11×8.5″, archival inkjet on paper, 2010



Exhibition card



Museum All-Over
June 4-August 29, 2010
John Erickson Museum of Art: Next Chapter and
Raccolte Frugone Museum
Genoa, Italy

Little Wonder
June 4-June 17, 2010
John Erickson Museum of Art: Next Chapter and
Golden Thread Gallery
Belfast, Northern Ireland
U.K.