Art and Architecture Thread

[SUTSS]

A thread for sharing pictures and thoughts on art and architecture.

I'll get it started with some brutalism.

Tricorn, Portsmouth.

Ziggurats, University of East Anglia, Norwich

Trellick Tower, London

 

[Mustard]

I'm not much into art but Rob Gonsalves makes some pretty interesting, surrealist pieces. http://huckleberryfineart.com/Rob-Gonsalves-prints/

 

[Martino Knockavelli]

Thought these were a stunning and trenchant commentary on the zeitgeist.

 

[Stagat]

 

[Martino Knockavelli]

 

[Aber gas]

I went to a rather brilliant Ivor Davies exhibition in Cardiff yesterday. Art in destruction. The pictures posted don't do any sort of justice really, but it's definitely worth seeing. Some of his sculptures and paintings are displayed including work from his childhood but for me the most intriguing part of the exhibition are the installations recreating his "happenings" from the late 50's and 60's. Atmospheric and sometimes unnerving. The displayed news stories and related literature of the time gives it some context but did feel a little nostalgic which I did feel was a bit over the top. I did enjoy it immensely and well worth someone's time imo.

 

[Benito]

Beautiful Brutal.

 

[Martino Knockavelli]

1. Samuda Estate, Isle of Dogs. Estate since privatised and now owned by One Housing Group, who have been the subject of a litany of complaints of mismanagement dating back a decade, and now plan to redevelop their 4 estates in the area, quadrupling the number of homes on the sites and building "premium flats" targeted at "international investors". The company assure concerned parties that existing social tenants will not get the shitty end of the stick. Which is nice.

2 & 3. Ferrier Estate, Greenwich. Demolished in 2012 as part of the Kidbrooke Regeneration - tagged "A New Village for Everyone". "Phased relocation" of existing tenants botched, leading to an admonishment from the Tennants Services Authority. Estimated that only ~25% of previous residents have been able to return. "Stunning new apartments" on the site now selling for up to £642,500. On the plus side Kidbrooke now has a David Lloyd gym, so it's not all bad.

4. Brentford Towers aka Green Dragon Estate. Still there, still council owned, as far as I can tell. Let's check back in 5 years!

5. Aylesbury Estate, Walworth. Of Channel 4 ident fame and subject of long running demolition social cleansing ambitious regeneration project. A pu pu platter of delights including (but not limited to) existing residents being offered prices ~50% below market value for their properties whilst the developer received pubic money in the form of a grant, the loss of nearly ~1000 social homes in a borough with an ~18,000 person waiting list, and the utilisation of security measures as pioneered at Checkpoint Charlie.

I like moody, monochrome shots of deserted monoliths as much as the next chap, but this fetishisation via aesthetisation and deracination (which is everywhere now, our home grown version of You Won't Believe This Totes Amazing Soviet Ruin Porn) is more than a bit dodgy innit? It elides a lot of ugliness in the name of context free cooing at a bit of sculptural concrete.

 

[TomPNE94]

1. Samuda Estate, Isle of Dogs. Estate since privatised and now owned by One Housing Group, who have been the subject of a litany of complaints of mismanagement dating back a decade, and now plan to redevelop their 4 estates in the area, quadrupling the number of homes on the sites and building "premium flats" targeted at "international investors". The company assure concerned parties that existing social tenants will not get the shitty end of the stick. Which is nice.

2 & 3. Ferrier Estate, Greenwich. Demolished in 2012 as part of the Kidbrooke Regeneration - tagged "A New Village for Everyone". "Phased relocation" of existing tenants botched, leading to an admonishment from the Tennants Services Authority. Estimated that only ~25% of previous residents have been able to return. "Stunning new apartments" on the site now selling for up to £642,500. On the plus side Kidbrooke now has a David Lloyd gym, so it's not all bad.

4. Brentford Towers aka Green Dragon Estate. Still there, still council owned, as far as I can tell. Let's check back in 5 years!

5. Aylesbury Estate, Walworth. Of Channel 4 ident fame and subject of long running demolition social cleansing ambitious regeneration project. A pu pu platter of delights including (but not limited to) existing residents being offered prices ~50% below market value for their properties whilst the developer received pubic money in the form of a grant, the loss of nearly ~1000 social homes in a borough with an ~18,000 person waiting list, and the utilisation of security measures as pioneered at Checkpoint Charlie.

I like moody, monochrome shots of deserted monoliths as much as the next chap, but this fetishisation via aesthetisation and deracination (which is everywhere now, our home grown version of You Won't Believe This Totes Amazing Soviet Ruin Porn) is more than a bit dodgy innit? It elides a lot of ugliness in the name of context free cooing at a bit of sculptural concrete.

totes agree pal

 

[Pagnell]

 

[Benito]

1. Samuda Estate, Isle of Dogs. Estate since privatised and now owned by One Housing Group, who have been the subject of a litany of complaints of mismanagement dating back a decade, and now plan to redevelop their 4 estates in the area, quadrupling the number of homes on the sites and building "premium flats" targeted at "international investors". The company assure concerned parties that existing social tenants will not get the shitty end of the stick. Which is nice.

2 & 3. Ferrier Estate, Greenwich. Demolished in 2012 as part of the Kidbrooke Regeneration - tagged "A New Village for Everyone". "Phased relocation" of existing tenants botched, leading to an admonishment from the Tennants Services Authority. Estimated that only ~25% of previous residents have been able to return. "Stunning new apartments" on the site now selling for up to £642,500. On the plus side Kidbrooke now has a David Lloyd gym, so it's not all bad.

4. Brentford Towers aka Green Dragon Estate. Still there, still council owned, as far as I can tell. Let's check back in 5 years!

5. Aylesbury Estate, Walworth. Of Channel 4 ident fame and subject of long running demolition social cleansing ambitious regeneration project. A pu pu platter of delights including (but not limited to) existing residents being offered prices ~50% below market value for their properties whilst the developer received pubic money in the form of a grant, the loss of nearly ~1000 social homes in a borough with an ~18,000 person waiting list, and the utilisation of security measures as pioneered at Checkpoint Charlie.

I like moody, monochrome shots of deserted monoliths as much as the next chap, but this fetishisation via aesthetisation and deracination (which is everywhere now, our home grown version of You Won't Believe This Totes Amazing Soviet Ruin Porn) is more than a bit dodgy innit? It elides a lot of ugliness in the name of context free cooing at a bit of sculptural concrete.

Didnt understand the last part even after furiously googling the words but I like the original concept and design of these buildings and what they were supposed to represent. Not for the ruin monolith porn but I agree that does give it an extra appeal to some people. There isnt anything wrong with the buildings either they have just have been massively neglected on purpose a lot of the time which is sad as they are 10x better than the shit being built to replace them which are small inside and very poorly designed. I have first hand experince being a Delivery driver around south london ive encounted all the social cleansing and gentrification.

Ferrier estate was great when first built I have visisted many times before its demoliton. equally as brilliant is the Tavy Bridge estate in Thamesmead it was truly impressive when it was first built.


Agree with your post you seem to have the same feelings about the social cleansing of the working class which are/have been replaced by rich foreign investers.

 

[Martino Knockavelli]

https://architectsforsocialhousing.wordpress.com/2016/02/01/central-hill-community/

 

[Benito]

Signed the petiton truly disgusting reading that.

edit nice website.

 

[Son of Cod]

You might have already seen these, but a collection of rather splendid posters are available for free at print size from NASA JPL.

http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/visions-of-the-future/

 

[SUTSS]

Has anyone else been watching Waldemar Januszczak's Renaissance Unchained on BBC Four? Pretty interesting stuff and his presenting style is great.

 

[Martino Knockavelli]

He's a bit of a Kwik Save Meades, style-wise, I think (tho perhaps that still constitutes a welcome tonic to Kenneth Clark and his bad teeth lecturing from on high). And at this point there's more documentaries/criticism/etc saying "a-ha! Everything you thought you knew about the Renaissance is WRONG!" than there is espousing the supposedly orthodox view. Aka The Green Berets Paradox.

 

[SALTIRE]

He's a dreadful presenter it's all about him. Shame as well as I like watching a lot of that arty farty shite.

 

[SUTSS]

He's a bit of a Kwik Save Meades, style-wise, I think (tho perhaps that still constitutes a welcome tonic to Kenneth Clark and his bad teeth lecturing from on high). And at this point there's more documentaries/criticism/etc saying "a-ha! Everything you thought you knew about the Renaissance is WRONG!" than there is espousing the supposedly orthodox view. Aka The Green Berets Paradox.

Definitely was thinking similarities to Meades when I was watching it. Meades is the master though.

Saltire's point about it being about himself is true I think, Meades does the same. I find it very watchable, especially compared to the boring lecture style that so many BBC presenters go for, but I can see why people would find it grating.

 

[SALTIRE]

Yeah I'm old fashioned in that I like the presenter to be discrete and let the art (or whatever they are speaking on) do the talking. I also don't watch any drama-doc's as well as they are lowest common denominator rubbish for when the presenter isn't up to it.

 

[Stagat]

GAY PARIS

 

[Martino Knockavelli]

They are great, but hardly forgotten.

More Boffil (and of Vampyros Lesbos fame):

 

[Captain Scumbag]

In a half-baked attempt to be less of an intellectual fraud (see the Currently Reading thread for details), I am reading J.G. Ballard’s The Drowned World. At the end of chapter 2, the protagonist gazes at two unnamed artworks in a way that seems SYMBOLICALLY IMPORTANT.

One is by Max Ernst. Ballard, who is quite good at writing, describes it as one of his “self-devouring phantasmagoric jungles that screamed silently to itself, like the sump of some insane unconscious.” I’m not a Max Ernst fan (and couldn’t explain why if my life depended on it), but I’m at least vaguely familiar with his ‘jungle’ works and could appreciate the reference. The painting was probably one like this.

Nature at Dawn (1938)

The other, which Ballard describes as one in which “ashen-faced women danced naked to the waste with dandified skeletons in tuxedos against a spectral bone-like landscape”, is attributed to the Belgian surrealist Delvaux. This did not register. I’d never heard of Delvaux, so some research was in order. I couldn’t find the specific painting – skeletons and naked fillies appear not infrequently in his work, and Ballard might not have been trying to describe a specific painting anyway – but never mind.

The salient point is this: after 20 minutes pissing around on Google Image I’ve decided I really like Paul Delvaux. Here are some of my favourites:

The Joy of Life (1937)

Skeletons in an Office (1944)

Loneliness (1956)

Landscape with Lanterns (1958)