Just look on YouTube for
Posts tonen met het label aforisms. Alle posts tonen
Posts tonen met het label aforisms. Alle posts tonen
woensdag
donderdag
GREAT VISIONS OF DUJARDIN
Have a look at these great MASH-UPS of the Belgian Photographer Philip Dujardin
More to be found on his website.
vrijdag
YOUR >TWINKIND< 3D TINY FAMILY
Twinkind / Berlin, makes it possible....
A 3D portait of you, your loved one or your pet.
Here you find the LINK
3D-printed
life-like
photo figurines.
Hello future. Have you ever imagined a true-to-life miniature version of yourself?
We´ve made it possible through state-of-the
art 3D scanning and color printing technology. The result is stunningly
detailed figurines that you can hold in your hands and observe from any
angle.
In other words: custom-made mini twins.
- See more at: http://www.twinkind.com/en/product#scrollTo1In other words: custom-made mini twins.
3D-printed
life-like
photo figurines.
Hello future. Have you ever imagined a true-to-life miniature version of yourself?
We´ve made it possible through state-of-the
art 3D scanning and color printing technology. The result is stunningly
detailed figurines that you can hold in your hands and observe from any
angle.
In other words: custom-made mini twins.
- See more at: http://www.twinkind.com/en/product#scrollTo1In other words: custom-made mini twins.
3D-printed
life-like
photo figurines.
Hello future. Have you ever imagined a true-to-life miniature version of yourself?
We´ve made it possible through state-of-the
art 3D scanning and color printing technology. The result is stunningly
detailed figurines that you can hold in your hands and observe from any
angle.
In other words: custom-made mini twins.
- See more at: http://www.twinkind.com/en/product#scrollTo1In other words: custom-made mini twins.
Shop
TWINKIND
Auguststrasse 35
10119 Berlin
Germany
Auguststrasse 35
10119 Berlin
Germany
Opening hours
Mondays – Saturdays: 10.00 - 19.00
(only by appointment)
Shop
TWINKIND
Auguststrasse 35
10119 Berlin
Germany
Auguststrasse 35
10119 Berlin
Germany
Opening hours
Mondays – Saturdays: 10.00 - 19.00
(only by appointment)
Shop
TWINKIND
Auguststrasse 35
10119 Berlin
Germany
Auguststrasse 35
10119 Berlin
Germany
Opening hours
Mondays – Saturdays: 10.00 - 19.00
(only by appointment)
maandag
SUZY MENKES 69 TODAY
I read this column in Another Magazine. anothermag.com And I post this on my favorite fashion reporters birthday.
I have always found Suzy Menkes' [24 December 1943] approach to fashion one of the most interesting Well written, no nonsense, deep, yet funny. In short British, I guess.
I have always found Suzy Menkes' [24 December 1943] approach to fashion one of the most interesting Well written, no nonsense, deep, yet funny. In short British, I guess.
An Intellectual
Fashion | Suzy Menkes
In this column, Donatien Grau speaks to prominent
thinkers and creatives about fashion and its connections to contemporary
creativity
Suzy Menkes Courtesy
of Getty Images
Suzy Menkes is a legendary voice in fashion criticism. Widely
acknowledged for her unique skills in unveiling new talents and commenting on
every fashion show, she embodies a demanding stance to relevant fashion. The
author of numerous books and essays, most recently on Hussein Chalayan, she
serves as the fashion editor of the International Herald Tribune.
How would
you connect fashion to elegance?
I don’t really believe in elegance. Ever since I first came to France, many years ago, to do the Chambre Syndicale course, I always felt I was somehow lacking, first of all being British – obviously a disaster! But I was also puzzled with this idea that you have to tie your Hermès scarf just right or you can only wear black. I always felt that this kind of rule should only be made to be broken. So I don’t really believe in elegance. However, I believe in natural elegance: the way certain people can put on their clothes and wear them in what looks like an unstudied way. Jacqueline Kennedy would have been a great example of somebody who always looked fabulous even with something very simple. When I actually saw the clothes on display at the Metropolitan Museum, I realised that a lot of work went into those clothes, and that they didn’t look much until she peopled them. So I don’t set elegance as a high standard in anything that I review or anything that I wear myself.
I don’t really believe in elegance. Ever since I first came to France, many years ago, to do the Chambre Syndicale course, I always felt I was somehow lacking, first of all being British – obviously a disaster! But I was also puzzled with this idea that you have to tie your Hermès scarf just right or you can only wear black. I always felt that this kind of rule should only be made to be broken. So I don’t really believe in elegance. However, I believe in natural elegance: the way certain people can put on their clothes and wear them in what looks like an unstudied way. Jacqueline Kennedy would have been a great example of somebody who always looked fabulous even with something very simple. When I actually saw the clothes on display at the Metropolitan Museum, I realised that a lot of work went into those clothes, and that they didn’t look much until she peopled them. So I don’t set elegance as a high standard in anything that I review or anything that I wear myself.
What is
the role of history and art history in your conception of fashion?
I’m fascinated about how fashion is so often a bell-weather for what is happening in the world, although you don’t see it at the time. I’ve now lived through quite a lot of generations and I think that even I would have realised in the 1920s that, as women cut off their hair and wore short skirts for the first time in recorded history, something was happening in the world. Other things are much more subtle: certainly the sexual freedom of the 1960s was perhaps fairly obvious, but the broad shoulders, I think I only connected with them afterwards, after we’d seen them on television and people actually started to wear them. It was only then that I connected them with the idea of women trying to take place into a man’s world, trying to break the glass ceiling.
I’m fascinated about how fashion is so often a bell-weather for what is happening in the world, although you don’t see it at the time. I’ve now lived through quite a lot of generations and I think that even I would have realised in the 1920s that, as women cut off their hair and wore short skirts for the first time in recorded history, something was happening in the world. Other things are much more subtle: certainly the sexual freedom of the 1960s was perhaps fairly obvious, but the broad shoulders, I think I only connected with them afterwards, after we’d seen them on television and people actually started to wear them. It was only then that I connected them with the idea of women trying to take place into a man’s world, trying to break the glass ceiling.
"The
way
that people dress makes them part of an army, dressed in their own
uniform,
determined to do something"
Would
you describe fashion as a language and a discourse, as Barthes did it?
Fashion is a language, particularly now, when nothing is forced on anyone, people, male and female, want to express themselves through what they wear. The whole subject of people who go to art galleries is particularly relevant in that sense: they certainly dress in a slightly bohemian way in order to fit in with the surroundings, in order to send out in their language the idea that they are part of a certain club.
Fashion is a language, particularly now, when nothing is forced on anyone, people, male and female, want to express themselves through what they wear. The whole subject of people who go to art galleries is particularly relevant in that sense: they certainly dress in a slightly bohemian way in order to fit in with the surroundings, in order to send out in their language the idea that they are part of a certain club.
The word
"intellectual" was coined in a time of great political distress.
Does fashion have a political role? And in which way?
There’s the obvious way that fashion is political in the way people dress in a political context: there is this immense farce in France about somebody turning up in a flowered dress to a meeting at the Elysée, and of course, in England, endless discussions about what people wear, what women wear, more than men, but that also comes into the equation. I certainly think that fashion can be a political statement, which is much more important. The way that people dress makes them part of an army, dressed in their own uniform, determined to do something.
There’s the obvious way that fashion is political in the way people dress in a political context: there is this immense farce in France about somebody turning up in a flowered dress to a meeting at the Elysée, and of course, in England, endless discussions about what people wear, what women wear, more than men, but that also comes into the equation. I certainly think that fashion can be a political statement, which is much more important. The way that people dress makes them part of an army, dressed in their own uniform, determined to do something.
Would
you relate the idea of 'fashion' to the one of 'style'?
I don’t really know how these different names work. They go in and out of fashion, that’s the truth. The whole idea that “fashion is for now, style is forever”, is a bit cliché. It is obviously true, but it is also obviously not true: fashion can be extraordinarily stylish, and it can tell us an enormous amount, it can be beautifully crafted, and done with amazing materials. So to me these sentences become cliché. It’s just like “luxury”: it’s now a word people spit over, except perhaps in different countries, where they haven’t seen so much of it. Now they say they need to invent a new word... Now they want a new word for “fashion” too, because fashion seems to be too connected with “fast fashion”, in other words something frivolous, something that you throw away immediately, something that doesn’t have any lasting value.
I don’t really know how these different names work. They go in and out of fashion, that’s the truth. The whole idea that “fashion is for now, style is forever”, is a bit cliché. It is obviously true, but it is also obviously not true: fashion can be extraordinarily stylish, and it can tell us an enormous amount, it can be beautifully crafted, and done with amazing materials. So to me these sentences become cliché. It’s just like “luxury”: it’s now a word people spit over, except perhaps in different countries, where they haven’t seen so much of it. Now they say they need to invent a new word... Now they want a new word for “fashion” too, because fashion seems to be too connected with “fast fashion”, in other words something frivolous, something that you throw away immediately, something that doesn’t have any lasting value.
What
does fashion have to do with intellectuality?
I think there’s too much mixing fashion and intellect. Fashion ultimately is designed to cover the human body, to give you joy, to make you feel better. I don’t think it has to have a great intellectual meaning. Yes, you can see meaning in it afterwards, because fashion history so often comes ahead of what happens in the world, so it is a precursor. But to intellectualise fashion too much, to me, is just going the wrong way.
I think there’s too much mixing fashion and intellect. Fashion ultimately is designed to cover the human body, to give you joy, to make you feel better. I don’t think it has to have a great intellectual meaning. Yes, you can see meaning in it afterwards, because fashion history so often comes ahead of what happens in the world, so it is a precursor. But to intellectualise fashion too much, to me, is just going the wrong way.
"Fashion
ultimately is
designed to cover the human body, to give you joy, to make you
feel better.
I don’t think it has to have a great intellectual meaning"
You are
a leading fashion critic. Where does fashion criticism stand in
relation to art
criticism and literary criticism?
It’s very hard for publications that print fashion criticism really to take it very seriously. Not solemnly, because I never think that criticism should be solemn, but in my own paper, the International Herald Tribune, I have the chance, because of our own history, to be able to look at fashion as other critics in our paper might look at fine arts. It’s not true in most places. I was just looking at one of the Rizzoli books that came out, and I noticed that it is absolutely wonderfully produced, wonderful pictures, and all the type is in white on light grey. It is impossible to read. That sets out the fact that it’s hard to be a fashion critic in an arena where the image means so much more to so many people.
It’s very hard for publications that print fashion criticism really to take it very seriously. Not solemnly, because I never think that criticism should be solemn, but in my own paper, the International Herald Tribune, I have the chance, because of our own history, to be able to look at fashion as other critics in our paper might look at fine arts. It’s not true in most places. I was just looking at one of the Rizzoli books that came out, and I noticed that it is absolutely wonderfully produced, wonderful pictures, and all the type is in white on light grey. It is impossible to read. That sets out the fact that it’s hard to be a fashion critic in an arena where the image means so much more to so many people.
As you
are someone widely acknowledged for your unique eye, what leads to
recognise
novelty in fashion?
Novelty is another of those words that is out of fashion: it is another of those words that is light-weight, something that isn’t going to last. The whole idea of what is new is fascinating in art and in fashion. I believe you could know it instinctively and emotionally. However much I strive, when I sit in front of a collection, because I like the designer, because I want it to be a great epiphany moment, if it doesn’t happen, the emotion is not there. On the other hand, it is quite hard these days, because so much criticism and so much journalism is based on the I-factor. I was trained as journalist never to use the word “I”, never to put my own opinion there. In fact, if you had a dollar or a euro for every time I use the word “I”, you would be a poor person. But this is not true in general. I like the idea of being able to stand away and make a judgement.
Here is a short film, Suzy interviewing Riccardo Tisci on his wonderful Givenchy 2010 collection.Novelty is another of those words that is out of fashion: it is another of those words that is light-weight, something that isn’t going to last. The whole idea of what is new is fascinating in art and in fashion. I believe you could know it instinctively and emotionally. However much I strive, when I sit in front of a collection, because I like the designer, because I want it to be a great epiphany moment, if it doesn’t happen, the emotion is not there. On the other hand, it is quite hard these days, because so much criticism and so much journalism is based on the I-factor. I was trained as journalist never to use the word “I”, never to put my own opinion there. In fact, if you had a dollar or a euro for every time I use the word “I”, you would be a poor person. But this is not true in general. I like the idea of being able to stand away and make a judgement.
Oh, can't stop... Here's the making off of that wonderful collection.
vrijdag
BLOG END
14/12/2012 schreef Ernst-Jan Pfauth [nrcnext] 
Kiosk-App
Woensdagavond bracht ik door met een ondernemer die één van de eerste westerse miljonairs in Birma probeert te worden, een vrouw die in alle Braziliaanse restaurants van Nederland wil eten en een jongen die antieke lampen uit verlaten Oost-Duitse militaire complexen redt. Deze avonturiers hadden één ding gemeen: ze willen over hun belevenissen bloggen. Zodat andere pioniers in Birma, Braziliaanse restaurantuitbaters en lampenliefhebbers van hun kennis en ervaringen kunnen profiteren. Daarom gaf ik ze die avond een blogworkshop.
De kosten voor zo’n magazine zijn laag
„Is bloggen eigenlijk niet een beetje dood?” vroeg ‘Birma’ nadat ik hem drie uur lang had lastig gevallen met blogtips. Ik omzeilde rakelings een zenuwinzinking, vond m’n adem terug, en zei: neen. Het is het enige digitale medium waar je écht verhalen kunt vertellen. Je kunt natuurlijk tweets plaatsen, of je laven aan de lichtblauwe like-orgie van Zuckerberg, maar dan word je door de standaardstructuur van die netwerken in je creatieve vrijheid beperkt. ‘Birma’ knikte instemmend. Godzijdank.
Tevreden fietste ik die avond naar huis. Ik zakte onderuit op de bank, pakte m’n iPad 1, klikte op de Kiosk-app en liet de antieke iPad van schrik uit m’n handen vallen. Op het scherm prijkte een publicatievorm die weleens een geduchte concurrent van de blog zou kunnen worden: het digitale magazine.
Met de Kiosk-app maakt Apple het voor iedereen mogelijk om abonnementen aan te bieden en dus tijdschriftenmaker te worden. Daarom beginnen steeds meer afgevaardigden van de digitale voorhoede hun eigen iPad-magazine. Zoals Matter, een publicatie van twee wetenschapsjournalisten die gek werden van de oppervlakkigheid in hun vak en elke maand een diepgravend stuk tegen betaling van 99 dollarcent aanbieden. Of Marco Arment, de man die ooit Tumblr bouwde en nu elke maand de beste technologiestukken bundelt en ze via de Kiosk-app voor 1,99 dollar verkoopt. The Magazine, noemt hij zijn blad, ‘for geeks like us’. Of het New Yorkse hipsterblog The Awl, dat voor 4 dollar per maand zijn beste blogartikelen als ‘Weekend Companion’ uitbrengt.
Matter, The Magazine en The Awl hebben alle drie een minimalistisch design. Leesbaarheid staat voorop. Geen gekke toeters en bellen, zoals bij het failliete The Daily van Rupert Murdoch, maar witte pagina’s met zwarte letters. Je wilt immers goede stukken lezen, en niets anders.
De kosten voor het beginnen van zo’n nichemagazine zijn laag, want er komt geen drukpers aan te pas. Het enige waar het nog aan ontbreekt, is een programma waarmee ook niet-nerds een iPad-magazine kunnen maken. Zodat het publiceren van zo’n Kiosk-app net zo makkelijk wordt als het opzetten van een blog. Zodra die software gebouwd is, zijn we klaar voor de volgende revolutie.
Het lijkt Birma wel.
Links naar besproken iPad Magazines:
dinsdag
BONSAI GARDENING [10]
Bonsai (盆栽, lit. plantings in tray, from bon, a tray or low-sided pot and sai, a planting or plantings, 
pronunciation (help·info))[1] is a Japanese art form using miniature trees grown in containers. Similar practices exist in other cultures, including the Chinese tradition of penjing from which the art originated, and the miniature living landscapes of Vietnamese hòn non bộ. The Japanese tradition dates back over a thousand years, and has its own aesthetics and terminology.
pronunciation (help·info))[1] is a Japanese art form using miniature trees grown in containers. Similar practices exist in other cultures, including the Chinese tradition of penjing from which the art originated, and the miniature living landscapes of Vietnamese hòn non bộ. The Japanese tradition dates back over a thousand years, and has its own aesthetics and terminology.
"Bonsai" is a Japanese pronunciation of the earlier Chinese term penzai. A "bon" is a tray-like pot typically used in bonsai culture.[2] The word bonsai is often used in English as an umbrella term for all miniature trees in containers or pots, but this article focuses on bonsai as defined in the Japanese tradition.
The purposes of bonsai are primarily contemplation (for the viewer) and the pleasant exercise of effort and ingenuity (for the grower).[3] By contrast with other plant cultivation practices, bonsai is not intended for production of food, for medicine, or for creating yard-size or park-size gardens or landscapes. Instead, bonsai practice focuses on long-term cultivation and shaping of one or more small trees growing in a container.
A bonsai is created beginning with a specimen of source material. This may be a cutting, seedling, or small tree of a species suitable for bonsai development. Bonsai can be created from nearly any perennialwoody-stemmed tree or shrub species[4] that produces true branches and can be cultivated to remain small through pot confinement with crown and root pruning. Some species are popular as bonsai material because they have characteristics, such as small leaves or needles, that make them appropriate for the compact visual scope of bonsai.
The source specimen is shaped to be relatively small and to meet the aesthetic standards of bonsai. When the candidate bonsai nears its planned final size it is planted in a display pot, usually one designed for bonsai display in one of a few accepted shapes and proportions. From that point forward, its growth is restricted by the pot environment. Throughout the year, the bonsai is shaped to limit growth, redistributefoliar vigor to areas requiring further development, and meet the artist's detailed design.
The practice of bonsai is sometimes confused with dwarfing, but dwarfing generally refers to research, discovery, or creation of plant cultivars that are permanent, genetic miniatures of existing species. Bonsai does not require genetically dwarfed trees, but rather depends on growing small trees from regular stock and seeds. Bonsai uses cultivation techniques like pruning, root reduction, potting, defoliation, and grafting to produce small trees that mimic the shape and style of mature, full-size trees.
 |
Mugo pine and Ezo spruce, Pinus mugo and Picea glehnii, bonsai since 1985.
|
 |
This Chinese hackberry, Celtis chinensis, has been trained as bonsai for more than 40 years.K
|
Catlin elm, Ulmus parvifolia 'Catlin', a miniature grove of 20 small trees.
K
 |
Willow-leaf fig, Ficus salicifolia, bonsai since 1986.
|
 |
| Trident maple, Acer Buergerianum, bonsai since 1880, about 8 feet high. |
WIKI
zondag
SCAPES [MUSIC]
Can machines create original music?
Scape is the answer to that question.Scape makes music that thinks for itself. From Brian Eno and Peter Chilvers, creators of Bloom, Scape is a new form of album which offers users deep access to its musical elements. These can be endlessly recombined to behave intelligently: reacting to each other, changing mood together, making new sonic spaces.
It employs some of the sounds, processes and compositional rules that have been used by Brian and Chilvers for many years and it applies them in fresh combinations, to create new music.
Scape makes music that thinks for itself.
- Brian Eno, Peter Chilvers
Includes 15 original scapes
Scapes can be saved into a gallery and added to a playlist
Plays in background of other apps (excluding iPad 1)
Generates random scapes
Scapes can be shared by email
Supports AirPlay and Retina display
Scapes can be saved into a gallery and added to a playlist
Plays in background of other apps (excluding iPad 1)
Generates random scapes
Scapes can be shared by email
Supports AirPlay and Retina display
Headphones or external speakers recommended
Brian Eno
Synthesiser, found sound, bells, bass guitar, strategies, images, art direction
Synthesiser, found sound, bells, bass guitar, strategies, images, art direction
Peter Chilvers
Synthesiser, chapman stick, structures, probability networks, additional images, software design.
Synthesiser, chapman stick, structures, probability networks, additional images, software design.
http: generative music
Here's an example of a Cape / iPad / User / Composer
vrijdag
PENIQUE FOR MARTIN MARGIELA
Maison Martin Margiela as amazing as ever, surprised us with their Spring-Summer 2013 Decor Installation at Hotel Salomon de Rothschild, Paris. Look at this film.
What the men of Penique Productions are preparing is for a long time unclear, until...
Making-of Maison Martin Margiela's Spring-Summer 2013 Decor Installation at Hotel Salomon de Rothschild, September 28th 2012.
Decor Installation: Penique Productions
Production: Eyesight
Music: Michel Gaubert
© Maison Martin Margiela / Videopolis - September 2012
One of the projects they did, El Claustro can be found here.
Norte Centro Histórico,
Querétaro, México
Art Direction: Maison Martin Margiela
Penique Production
Penique Productions seems to have a lot of experience is doing "Internal Blow-ups". On their website are several examples. Look here.
CutOutFest 2011 Size: 10m x 10m x 11m
Museo de la Ciudad
The film of the making of El Claustro
maandag
MUSICAL FALL
Old but a delight to watch again...
Gravité from Renaud Hallée on Vimeo.
The man, the maker: Renaud Hallee
Gravité from Renaud Hallée on Vimeo.
The man, the maker: Renaud Hallee
zaterdag
SONARSOUNDS 4 CHRISTMAS
Old already but a delight to watch whenever...
Sonar from Renaud Hallée on Vimeo.
The man, the maker: Renaud Hallee
Sonar from Renaud Hallée on Vimeo.
The man, the maker: Renaud Hallee
donderdag
THORSTEN BRINKMANN
German born artist Thorsten Brinkmann moves between painting, photography, sculpture, readymades, collage and performance.
Thorsten Brinkmann (Herne, 1971) is an active collector. In his hometown of Hamburg, he has a large shed completely filled with found objects. Everything you can find at the flea market, you also collect Thorsten Brinkmann at: discarded wardrobes, lamp shades, tables, rugs and more. From this series he draws freely in installations, sculptures, videos and photos.
The photographic self-portraits dresses and masks Thorsten Brinkmann is always another way. One time he pulls secondhand clothes over his head. Other times he hides his face in a flowerpot or lampshade. Using the items from his collection molds Brinkmann each his own body into a new representation of himself.
Thorsten Brinkmann (Herne, 1971) is an active collector. In his hometown of Hamburg, he has a large shed completely filled with found objects. Everything you can find at the flea market, you also collect Thorsten Brinkmann at: discarded wardrobes, lamp shades, tables, rugs and more. From this series he draws freely in installations, sculptures, videos and photos.
The photographic self-portraits dresses and masks Thorsten Brinkmann is always another way. One time he pulls secondhand clothes over his head. Other times he hides his face in a flowerpot or lampshade. Using the items from his collection molds Brinkmann each his own body into a new representation of himself.
IDEAS TO LIVE BY
At The School of Life all is possible, courses, holidays, 'bibliotherapy', meals, sermons, events and psychotherapy. There's also a shop and ist here that they sell Aphorisms [a set of cards or posters with a clever text, a bit à la Dutch Loesje
The course bear agreeable names like:
How To Be Cool?
How To Have Better Conversations.
How To Find A Job You Love.
How To Spend Time Alone.
How to be a good friend.
The course bear agreeable names like:
How To Be Cool?
How To Have Better Conversations.
How To Find A Job You Love.
How To Spend Time Alone.
How to be a good friend.
maandag
INSPIRATION VS IMITATION
Jessica Hische does an interesting blog and writes some interesting stuff on designing and 'good manners' Especially her article 'inspiration vs imitation' in which she sets up some rules on how and why.
 |
| A funny example of Jessica's work |
donderdag
A STUDENTS BLOGS ABOUT HIS STUDIES
Now it's possible to follow academic studies online. It also invites to blog about your study and, more over, challenges you to make the most of it.
Mister Larvecode does and leaves his notes on Tumblr. Inspiring and intriguing...
Here's the link: http://larvecode.tumblr.com/
Mister Larvecode does and leaves his notes on Tumblr. Inspiring and intriguing...
Here's the link: http://larvecode.tumblr.com/
GARDENING [5] BAWA
Together the Sri Lankan Bawa brothers put 'tropical retreat' design on the map. The brothers, Bevis and Geoffrey left their mark in Sri Lanka, where they originated, but also on Bali and the other beautifully beached HOT spots, from Bali to Bermuda.
Bevis was the gardener, Geoffrey the architect. His biggest achievement in worldly architecture probably being his Houses of Parliament in Colombo, capital of Sri Lanka.
But what the two of them together are really responsible for is the mark they put on tropical retreats.
The design of world famous hotels like the Balinese Amandari or the private housing compound of Taman Mertasari were all based on their invention of monsoon leisure.
The Taman Mertasari I visited mid nineties, was initiated by Brent Hesselyn and partners. Brent was an Australian who ran the ceramic factory Jengala. [I say ran, because he was lost at sea in 2002]
Geoffrey Bawa (1919-2003) is far better known than his brother. After
training in England to be a lawyer, he turned to architecture. He
designed the island’s Parliament complex as well as many other public
buildings but made his reputation with his hotels, like the mile-long Heritance Kandalama outside of Dambulla, which seems to grow out of the jungle, and the Jetwing Lighthouse
in the coastal city of Galle. Geoffrey’s practice of combining native
materials with international modernist style has become hugely
influential around the world.Geoffrey began his garden, called Lunuganga, in the late 1940s. Sited on a former rubber plantation, its main feature is a large lake at the bottom of a steep hill. The English landscape movement heavily influenced his plan. Wide swathes of lawn stretch toward the lake from the original house (now a hotel), dotted with Frisian cows (Geoffrey loved black and white everywhere and adored Dalmatian dogs), water gardens, and miniature rice paddies. A crenelated folly, prettily painted guest bungalows, and artfully placed statuary add to the English feel.
Geoffrey had no doubts about the relationship between a designer and his garden. His philosophy was dedicated to the notion of man’s domination over nature; he moved water, hills, and trees without hesitation. “The long view to the south ended with the temple,” Geoffrey wrote, “but in the middle distance was a ridge with a splendid ancient moonamal tree, and when I placed a large Chinese jar under it, the hand of man was established in this middle distance.” Yet Geoffrey’s genius was to create a landscape so naturalistic that it could hardly be identified as man-made. Ondaatje tells the story of a visitor to Lunuganga exclaiming, “But Mr. Bawa, wouldn’t this be a lovely place to turn into a garden?” Geoffrey said this was the best compliment he ever received.
Bevis Bawa (1909-1992) used his skills on gardening in, what he called; Brief Garden. Named Brief Garden because his father purchased the land after a successful legal brief, Bevis’ garden is farther inland than his brother’s, and though it embraces the same tropical landscape, it reflects Bevis’ unruly temperament and casual approach to life.
 |
| Bevis |
Bevis started his garden (also a former rubber plantation) in 1929, almost 20 years before his brother. His design follows narrow winding pathways through dense tropical foliage, runs up and down slopes, then suddenly opens onto a staircase, a patio, a pond, or a strategically placed piece of sculpture. Walking through it one feels that Bevis somehow tamed the jungle for his purposes, but only momentarily—stray from the path and you are back in the forest.
Visiting both gardens in one day, I was struck by the variety of emotions they elicited. Bevis’ garden, which I saw first, was the wilder of the two but somehow more comforting and intimate. A drenching monsoon rain had just ended, leaving a steamy and muggy atmosphere with drops of water still trembling on the palm fronds and rivulets of rain racing across the paths like little snakes. No other tourists ventured out in such torridly humid weather, and no guide appeared to accompany me. Yet I did not feel lonely. The paths took me from vista to vista, each more breathtaking than the last. I felt I was being led by an invisible docent who told me where to stop and look or where to sit and rest. It was magical. At every turn I was aware of the giant palms and tropical plants looming overhead, ready to pounce and return to the jungle the land Bevis had so cunningly captured.
Geoffrey’s garden had the opposite effect. A guide walked me through the long landscaped vistas of paddy fields with the lake as a backdrop, through the carefully arranged clumps of trees, up Cinnamon Hill past the Frisians grazing in the meadow. At the top of the hill, I enjoyed the long view back toward the main house. Everything felt open to the sky. This garden felt almost familiar to this Englishwoman, particularly the presence of the happily grazing cows. Only occasionally did glimpses of tropical plants in the interstices of the garden remind me of where I was.
As I strolled back through Geoffrey’s elegant, controlled landscape, images of the rather more outrageous elements of Bevis’ garden flashed through my mind and I began to laugh. Later, I asked David Robson, author of Bawa: The Sri Lanka Gardens (Thames & Hudson; 2008), how he felt about the two gardens. “Brief is introspective,” he wrote to me, “a series of outdoor rooms with almost no views toward the outside. ... It is the more decorative, more eclectic of the two. … Geoffrey Bawa may have set out to create a Sri Lankan version of a European garden, but in the end he created something that owes more to Sri Lankan garden-making and landscape traditions.”
So Bevis made his garden and Geoffrey made his, and after seeing the results, even if you knew nothing about the men who made them, you could do some pretty accurate speculating about their personalities. Whatever their differences, Bevis and Geoffrey dug out two incontestable masterpieces from the rich Sri Lankan soil, producing two separately inspired gardens that belong together as a family record for generations to come.
OTHER PLACES TO SEE IN SRI-
The Royal Botanic Gardens in Peradeniya, Sri Lanka, northeast of Colombo, cover 147 acres along the Mahaweli River and has allées of more than 200 species of palms, an orchid house, a giant Java fig tree, and a Victorian-style annual garden.
Geoffrey Bawa-designed hotels can be found throughout Sri Lanka.
Kandalama in Dambulla
Club Villa in Bentota
Lighthouse in Galle.
Gallery Cafe Geoffrey’s former offices, now turned into a chic restaurant, remains an enchanting example of his architectural genius.
Lunuganga fotoserie
Bawa gardens on Flickr
Bawa hotels
Travelling Bawa
Brief Garden:
Brief Garden plan
Brief Garden pictures
Preparing A BAWA TRIP. Look at this. 7D6N In the Footsteps of Geoffrey Bawa, Sri Lanka
TEA:
For a completely different experience, visit the town of Nuwara Eliya in the mountainous central region of the island where most colonial tea plantations were established. The town is full of English-style cottages and is a great base from which to explore the plantations (some offer tastings) and see the gorgeous spectacle of tea bushes planted in neat rows along the hillsides.
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