Bending Theory

On a recent trip to Newcastle I was ecstatic to discover the Millennium Bridge. Designed by the architecture firm WilkinsonEyre the Bridge rises up into an elongated and elegant bend before descending down onto the opposite bank, counter balanced by a swooping arch that rises into the air to support the base. Walking across the pedestrian bridge, I was full of glee marveling at the simple but profound idea of the bridge producing an indirect path - rather than cut firmly and strictly across the Tyne river the Bridge offers a soft journey, as if proposing that one consider the view, or daydream a bit along the way... It made me appreciate the simple fact that embodied within the Bridge is a form of theoretical perspective that one might begin to apply to the built environment in general. Situationist dérive or fanciful form? Whichever way the Bridge takes the idea of being a pedestrian as an opportunity to explore the surrounding environment, and how radical that such an urban project (costing no doubt millions of pounds) would put forth such a theory of the bend.

Dominion

Fellow U.C.Riverside Lecturer Michael Wilson screened his film Silhouette City tonite and it presents a fascinating portrait of Christian extremist's transformation from a radical fringe movement in the 1970's and 80's to the mainstream political force that it is today. It's compelling on many levels... one of which is the way evangelical Christians have framed America as holy place with a god given right to rule the world. Through the course of the film, we watch various sites – a small compound in Arkansas, a place of worship or the entire geography of the U.S. – perform rhetorically as the location where god's will might be enacted. The film is a nuanced and telling examination of religious fundamentalism in America.

Experimental Group

an application for utopian building consent has been made
a proposition has been put forward for Vertical Common in Smithfield Market, Central London
notices were posted at the site on 5th May 2008
to view the proposition and have your say go to http://www.experimentalgroup.org/blog

Berlin - city in the throes of its own détournement

Critical Art Ensemble artist Steve Kurtz finally cleared

Nice to read today that Steve Kurtz' case was dismissed by a judge when, after four years of legal wrangling, it was finally brought to trial.
Read more on the story here.

Storefront in L.A.

POP-UP STOREFRONT FOR ART AND ARCHITECTURE
comes to Los Angeles with the exhibition

CCCP: COSMIC COMMUNIST CONSTRUCTIONS PHOTOGRAPHED:
Architecture of the last two decades of the Soviet Union photographed by Frédéric Chaubin

Opening Reception - Friday, April 11, 7pm

Pop-Up Storefront @ Paper Chase Printing
7176 Sunset Boulevard
Los Angeles, CA 90049
(2 blocks west of La Brea @ Formosa)

April 11 - May 17, 2008

Gallery hours:
Wednesday - Friday, 3pm - 8pm
Saturday - Sunday, 1pm - 8pm

About the Pop-Up Storefront project...
Since 1982, Storefront for Art and Architecture has gained a reputation for bringing innovative, groundbreaking and controversial exhibitions on architecture, art, and design to New York City from its gallery space in SoHo. This year, the gallery will begin a new chapter in its history which will carry the gallery beyond the confines of New York. A series of new Storefronts will pop up in cities around the world to host events and exhibitions in partnership with local cultural institutions, and then will disappear. The very first ever Pop-Up Storefront will debut on April 11, on Sunset Boulevard in the heart of Hollywood.

Pop-Up Storefront LA is sponsored by American Apparel
Local Partners: ForYourArt and Los Angeles Forum for Architecture and Urban Design


About CCCP: COSMIC COMMUNIST CONSTRUCTIONS PHOTOGRAPHED
Architecture of the last two decades of the Soviet Union photographed by Frédéric Chaubin

Over the past five years, during the course of his travels in the former Soviet Union, French photographer Frédéric Chaubin has documented an extensive collection of startling architectural artifacts born during the last two decades of the Cold War. Architects in the peripheral regions of the Eastern Bloc countries, working on governmental commissions during the 1970s and 1980s, enjoyed a surprising degree of creative freedom. Operating in a cultural context hermetically sealed from the influence of their Western counterparts, they drew inspiration from sources ranging from expressionism, science fiction, early European modernism and the Russian Suprematist legacy
to produce an idiosyncratic, flamboyant and often imaginative architectural ménage. Unexpected in their contexts, these monumental buildings stand in stark contrast to the stereotypical understanding of late Soviet architecture in which monotonously repetitive urban landscapes were punctuated by vapid exercises in architectural propaganda.

The subjects of Chaubin's photographs, scattered throughout Armenia, Estonia, Georgia, Lithuania, Belarus, Ukraine and Russia, were all constructed during the last two decades of the Soviet era. Very few of their designers achieved anything more than local recognition, and until now these buildings have never been collectively documented or exhibited. The authors of many works remain unknown, and some have been destroyed since Chaubin's photographs were taken. Conceived and executed during a moment of historical transition, they constitute one of the most surprising and least known legacies of the former USSR.

letters from Cape Town

Echoes from the homeland or lost objects... Stumbling upon English-style pillar post boxes in Cape Town brought forward in a material form the movements of colonial occupation: this curious object reflects a strange act of missionary work performed as a duplication of homeland design.