June 30, 2014

Cobbled




Stone details seen around Rome - mound of cobble stones on the streets of Trastevere, striped foundations in white and grey and filled in arch both stumbled across in the Roman Forum.

'Rome wasn't built in a day' seems an apt cliché to fall back on.

From the photo series 'In Italy', June 2014.

June 26, 2014

No mo' mo


                                                          








             
 
       

                                                 










Last night Kjell shaved off his moustache. I had never seen him without it before. I feel like I am getting to know someone else. I think it felt just as strange for his as it did for me.




June 23, 2014

Ruined & Ordered




 
 Archeological areas around the Roman Forum and the Palatine Hill. Ordered fragments of ruins carefully composed, arranged by size shape colour. Site specific installations. 
Rome, June 2014.

From the photo collection 'In Italy'.



Embellished columns from similar perspectives - decorative and supportive. Corinthian capitals.
Florence and Rome, June 2014.
From the photo collection 'In Italy'.

Umbrella outside the Duomo


Umbrella outside the Duomo, Florence, Italy. An inter-continental rendezvous with Claire, while on a trip to Rome. Taken after ascending Brunelleschi's dome.

From the photo collection 'In Italy'.

June 2, 2014

Two Shelves




Working in a library, I am surrounded by shelves. Uniform, bland, easy to maneuver and reassemble. In that pale composite wood which feels like plastic (and probably is). Unmarkable, resilient against dust and made to withstand the daily grind of careless university students.
In the grand scheme of things, library shelves are nothing to write home about. 
In libraries, shelves and collections are measure by metres.
"Well, the 300's are taking up 80 meters at present, but are growing rapidly," someone might say.
I have never actually bothered to find out if a standard library shelf is in fact, one metre long. The thought only struck me now, typing this, and I feel I am only one day away from a crucial discovery into the inner workings of the library world.

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Shelves are like bridesmaids - there as a support, but not intended to distract from the object on display. I consider myself a sort of shelf personality: there to lend a helping hand, bolster my friends, a shoulder to lean on. I would love to be a bridesmaid one day.

As far as I know, there is no such furniture personality test. 

More often than not these shelf supports - brackets, frames and what not - are nondescript or non-existant. Great effort is made to make shelves appear as self supporting as possible, stand-alone objects, as if a plank of wood suddenly emerged from a wall,or is sitting balanced there by sheer force of will.

"Look Mum! No hands!"

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I have started building shelves as sculptural objects. Above are my first two efforts, utelizing discarded bookends sourced from the library. Objects not only functioning as weight-bearing horizontal surfaces adjacent to walls, but as explorations of differing ways by which to affix these boards to said walls. Supports supporting other supports - a network of brackets, braces, and wires tensing and compressing. Juxtaposing different materials, colours, forms in a balanced and harmonious manner.

A shelf should be just as pleasing to look at empty.