STICKY-TAPE PERSPECTIVES

Multidisciplinary artist Damien Gilley creates sculptural installations

 

Multidisciplinary artist Damien Gilley creates sculptural installations that quickly redefine space through the use of optical illusions. By combining math with various materials including paint, masking tape, drywall, vinyl, wood, and foam core, he finds all kinds of ways to alter his viewers' perceptions of reality. The installations, which feature fake walls extending out from real walls, tape drawings, and imaginary hallways emerging off of flat surfaces, are Gilley's attempt to "reconfigure the built environment to provide alternative viewing experiences that complicate rational space."

 

The Oregon-based artist doesn't limit himself to four enclosed walls. He finds ways to travel beyond the limitations of architecture and he invites his viewers to come along for the visually intriguing experience. Each of Gilley's constructed walls are purposefully placed to react naturally with the existing interior and, from a distance, it's quite difficult to distinguish between reality and illusion. All of his deceptive, incomprehensible spaces are simply mind-blowing!
 

All to be found on mymodernmet.com LINK

DELVING INTO THE UNKNOWN

There was a time that the Bibliotheca Philosohica Hermetica seemed to go astray. Joost Ritman spend so much money on his life's passion that he went bankrupt. Nobody seemed willing to save his library, but recently the Bibliotheca reopened. 

 Joost Ritman comes from a family of Rosicrucians. He began collecting rare old books when he was sixteen, but his enthusiasm was really fuelled when his mother gave him a copy of Aurora, a work by the German Protestant mystic Jacob Böhme (1575-1624). The work also fed his interest in Hermetic  philosophy. In fifty years’ time he collected not only the essential works of Hermetism, but also related currents such as gnosis, theosophy, non-Western philosophy and  kabbalah. The core of the collection, however, consists of the Corpus Hermeticum. Like Cosimo de’ Medici, Ritman commissioned a translation of the Corpus Hermeticum, in Dutch, in 1990.

Joost Ritman is now only surrounded by family members in the library: his daughters Esther (director and librarian) and Mirjam (art historian and curator of the Ritman Art Collection) and his granddaughter Rixande. Ritman had to let go the academic staff formerly connected to the library. ‘The library is like a ship in a storm’, he says. ‘We had to steer it to a safe haven. The crew originally consisted of seven people, we are now carrying on with four. We are hiring our former staff on a freelance basis.’

To prevent attachment of the collection in the future, a new organisational structure has been designed for the library. The ownership of the collection has been entrusted to a foundation headed by the Ritman family. The right of usage of the library is held by a second foundation, which has an ANBI status, an official accreditation for charities, making donations tax deductible. The board is made up of Ritman’s daughter Mirjam, former Education and Culture minister Hedy d’Ancona, and Amsterdam notary public Maarten Meijer.

FORNASETTI APPT

Some years ago I happened to visit the guest appartment of Fornasetti. It is situated at the end of a Milanese garden, overgrown by rododendrons and rubberplants. I was happy to find these pictures on the net, as my visit was at night and without a camera. The main building houses the Fornasetti design workshops. I'll post some pictures of these mysterious rooms some other day. [meanwhile, here is a link to the house!]

The totally interesting thing about the guest house is the combination of new and old, all with an extreme eye for detail. The sense of classicism, use of color and style, made the visit a fysical experience.

 

One enters the appt from the garden, into the cum newspaper / butterfly overthrown / patterned kitchen and dining area.

   Old paintings from the Fornasetti workshop furnish an antique atmosphere.

Butterflies seem to be going everywhere... 

A few steps lead up to a sittingroom / bedroom. The idea of classical columns is provided by some old engravings of Roman triumphal columns.

 

 

 The bathroom of which I hope to add some pictures one day, was in black and gold tiles, all of fornasetti's well known ornamentation suns and faces...

Update end 2011: a good friend of mine had the opportunity to stay in the Fornasetti appt's just recently. Here some iPhone shots he send me...

On the site of Fornasetti there are great pictures of the house to be seen, although the atmosphere is, to my idea, not well captured. link to the house

IMAGES 4 CONCEPTS

Perrine Lievens [bois et sucre] Click

 

Anneliese Wolf Click

Diller, Scofidio + Renfro - Blur Building, Yverdon-les-Bains, Switzerland Click

Yang Yi Click

CULTURAL GUERILLAS

It's been a while...

But "it boggled my mind then" and it made me wonder about the 'state of affairs "today. 
So I took a look ...
Monday, November 26, 2007 in The Guardian published an article on "Cultural Guerillas".
They thought it necessary to repair Paris Pantheon clock. All in extreme secrecy.
It came to light through a lawsuit against Untergunther, for their clandestine restoration. 
L'UX is a clandestine Paris-based organization whose goal it is to improve and restore hidden and neglected relics of urban heritage.
Earlier, in 2004, a L'UX related group, "La Mexicaine De Perforation" was 'caught' on the operation of entertaining a clandestine cinema in a space underneath the Palais de Chaillot on the Place du Trocadero in Paris. The Palais de Chaillot also houses the Musée du Cinema. 

Now there's a book, "La Culture En Clandestins L'UX'". Lazar Kunstmann, spokesman for L'UX and author of the book talks about 25 projects. From the start of the organization, the founding of the cinema, the repair of the Pantheon clock and the process.

25 years clandestine cultural action ... sounds great!

ANDRéE PUTMAN AMBASSADRICE DU STYLE

André Putman, designer / stylist has finally got her overview in the Paris. More a kind of eighties icon, that reintroduced art-deco into the world in a new and stylish, often black and white, fashion. Known for her big studio lamps, black and white tiled bathrooms and love of Jean Michel Frank succeeded to turn this all into a typical 'Putman Style', now on show in the Hotel De Ville.



Découvrez Rétrospective "Andrée Putman, ambassadrice du style" à l'Hôtel de Ville sur Culturebox !

For a dazzling overview; Google images

LONGLASTING INSPIRATION 3

Charlie Todd is the founder of Improv Everywhere, producing, directing, performing, and documenting the group’s work for over eight years. He is also a teacher and performer of improv comedy at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre. Charlie is the author of Causing a Scene, a book about Improv Everywhere published by Harper Collins.

Charlie Todd was born in Columbia, South Carolina and went to school at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. You can get in touch with him via this contact page.

Charlie Todd maintains a personal blog and a personal twitter account.

You can book Charlie Todd to speak at your school, conference, or corporate event.

This page was written in the third person because Charlie Todd would like it to show up first when someone Googles “Charlie Todd.” Numerous films to be found on YouTube...