Not a Nice Place to Visit, and I Wouldn't Want to Live There, Either

ROM-ruining architect Daniel Libeskind has just unveiled "Villa", a "luxury" mass-produced pre-fab house that can be shipped and assembled anywhere in the world. For a mere $3 million to $6 million (depending on finishes and location), you can own a cookie cutter home, which may or may not be suitable to the climate, geography, or building site of your choice, and which may or may not leak, but which IS guaranteed to induce a state unease, if not out-right high anxiety, in all who enter (let alone try to eat or sleep in the place).

I tried, I really, really tried, to find something to like about the Libeskind addition to Toronto's Royal Ontario Museum. But: it's not a "crystal", it's trailer-park siding. It's depressing and disorienting from the moment you walk in. It's got little functional exhibition space. The execution and detailing is abysmal throughout ("Staircase of Blunders"?). It sends such nasty feng shui poison arrows at its neighbours on Bloor Street that I don't even want to go to my favourite roof-top bar anymore.

As an architect, Libeskind seems enjoy making people feel uncomfortable in his buildings. There is nothing pleasant, uplifting or humane about the experience. Oddly, he manages to get handsomely paid for designing the same thing over and over. With "Villa", at least the marketing is straightforward: it is a pre-fab. Anyone foolish enough, or status-seeking enough to buy one will have only themselves to blame. Unfortunately, Torontonians who love the ROM can only wonder how on earth this project, literally based on a sketch on a paper serviette, ever came to fruition.

However, the European design and architectural community is not proving to be as gullible. An article published yesterday in the respected online architectural and design journal "De Zeen" has generated 36 comments so far, almost entirely negative. Here is a sampling:

(Some of the respondents obviously are not native english speakers, but their meaning is "crystal" clear)

"This makes me so sad, when architects don’t care if its a museum or a private house, it all looks the same. This is where our bad reputation is founded. Care more about the content DL!"

"And where exactly is architecture here??? Money making machine! You can just order the same house, put it on the beach or in your backyard… North, East, nomether where, it belongs everywhere??? Pack up the house, load the truck, put it anywhere you want just show us the money! That should be the line for seling it! This man cannot be serious!!!"

"I live on Greenland. It will perfectly fit on the climate there :-P
The real good thing in this project that I have finally found out what kind of architect he is. Daniel, please find another job. Please."

"Design Summary:
Stupid shape - [Check]
Pretentious logic - [Check]
Corny symbolism - [Check]
Rehash of unbuilt project - [Check]
Stupid diagonals - [Check]
Immature design rational - [Check]
Sloped wall gimmick - [Check]"

"For $3mil - $4 mil. a wealthy client should expect a unique house that responds to a specific site, a highly personal lifestyle and individual aesthetic goals. Libeskind’s mass-produced, “one-size-fits-all” house, however glorified in the jargonistic buzzwords of the day (i.e. “sustainability”), satisfies none of those ideals. Hence it can never truly be considered high-end design. It will never be more than something for the intellectually insecure to use to try and achieve social credibility. Only a fool would buy into the hype."

"Architectural Masterpieces, I think not!
Emperors New Clothes, anybody?"


Ouch.
You can see pictures, read Libeskind's promotional materials, and read the commentary in full here.

How Young Artists Live

Photo credits: Jordan Prussky

Whether the economy is good or bad, young artists have always been adept at finding creative ways of supporting themselves and their artmaking. For some, this means leaving the city for a more affordable rural or small town existence. For most, it means a day job, and a live/work arrangement. Robert Malinowski and Erin Glover are a case in point. They share a 900 square foot space which provides both living accommodation, and studio.

The couple lives in a re-purposed mattress factory located in the arts-rich and still (marginally) affordable Parkdale neighbourhood of Toronto. In spite of space constraints, and some unusual "architectural" features, Robert and Erin have created a welcoming home and an effective workplace, consisting of a cozy bednook, an all-purpose living room with a galley kitchen, and a separate studio area for each. Their space was formerly the shipping and receiving area for the mattress factory. The freight elevator is still functional. A vaguely menacing industrial sculpture consisting of wheels and turbines hangs over their bed: it is the motor for the elevator. It is conversation-starter to be sure, and , when in operation, also a very effective conversation-stopper. Fortunately, the elevator does not see heavy use, and is not in operation at night.

In addition to their own art, the couple also has found room to display some very fine work by fellow artists. The painting above the sofa is a gift from their close friend, Paul Fortin. (Fortin is an artist whose paintings and sculptures I very much admire. He shows with Patrick Mikhail in Ottawa.)

Malinowski and Glover currently have an exhibition entitled "Ties That Bind" at A.K. Collings Gallery. This is the final week of the show.

Bruno, Saskatchewan Declares June 7 Julie Doiron Day

This story is tangentially related to the "power of one"/creative contagion theme in the previous post.

I've written before about All Citizen's Gallery, and the two young artists who brought their artistic and creative energies to the tiny farming community of Bruno, Saskatchewan, pop. 590. Julie Doiron recently gave a concert at All Citizens, and was surprised when the Mayor declared June 7 to be "Julie Doiron Day". Ms. Doiron was further honoured by the unveiling of a bench and plaque.

I love this video clip of Tyler Brett and the Mayor making the presentation. A bit of research was required to uncover the Mayor's name: she is Audrey Ludwig. I'll bet she'd have a thing or two she could teach big-city politicians about community-building and the "creative class". Richard Florida might want to consider inviting her to deliver a guest lecture at the University of Toronto.



Click here for a lovely Julie Doiron music video.

Exponential Joy

Happiness is wonderfully contagious. It just takes one creative person to get things rolling. This clip about fun-gone-viral has itself gone viral. You may have already seen it elsewhere, but I am posting it as my little contribution to cultural probiotics.



Music by Santigold, Sasquatch Festival out on the Left Coast (Cascadia somewhere)

Ties That Bind, Part 2

Svava Thordis Juliusson is a sculptor who works with zip-ties and other found materials. In "Ties That Bind" she has installed sculpture from the "Svona, Svona" series, and the "Nerve" series. "Svona, svona" is a term of consolation in the Icelandic tongue, the equivalent of saying "There, there", while gently patting a crying child on the back.

The work is as delicate and ephemeral as hoar frost on a window: extremely difficult to capture in a photograph. In some instances, the shadow made by the sculpture is more prominent than the piece itself, giving the sense that the work is at once present, and not present.


Juliusson was born in Siglufjordur, Iceland, immigrating to the Canadian prairies at age ten. She began undergraduate studies at the Alberta College of Art and Design in 1993 and completed a Bachelor of Fine Arts at NSCAD University in 1997. Juliusson completed her MFA in studio at York University in 2007.

"Svona II" is a larger and more robust work, approximately 6 feet outstretched. It is constructed of heavier cable ties (approximately 3500 of them). Suspended from the ceiling, it has an oddly anthropomorphic quality, and seems to bow in a formal, albeit icy, gesture of greeting. The cable ties glitter and have the property of capturing even the weakest rays of ambient light. The work has a shimmery glow when the lights are turned down.





Two examples of the smaller works which comprise the "Nerve" series are seen below:




Artist Statement

"I am interested in using and manipulating traditional sculpture techniques and various non-traditional sculpture materials to express my concerns and ideas. There is often a blurring of that which locates me as an artist who is compelled to consider for example the pigeon and that which causes me to reflect on rearing children and planting a garden. The studio investigations, which often commence at the kitchen table or the laundry room, tend to oscillate between a curiosity of the methods and materials of object making and the desire to articulate a response to my surroundings and certain events such the much publicized outbreaks of Avian Flu, Hoof and Mouth disease and BSE; which have become illustrative of the beginnings of the 21st century."

"Ideas around transformation are at root of my current studio investigations. After recent move, a recent graduate degree and recent entry into my fortieth decade, I became overwhelmed with my surroundings and specifically the objects, the material or stuff that I have accumulated in cupboards, closets and bins in my home and in my studio. This is not the ordinary kind of clutter; there are containers full of Styrofoam balls and some that contain only shards of plaster; and others that are full of bungee cord remnants and pieces of old linoleum. So rather than taking it all to the landfill as was my first instinct, I have begun to re-assemble, or re-invent the accrual. Some of it has been already configured directly on the walls of my studio, and other works were developed on paper. Simply put however, the project is about recycling – a topical and highly politicized issue that relates to my ongoing desire to respond to current events - and the idea that all of my detritus can become something else."


"tiedwithgreenredyellow" (metal packing straps, coloured zip ties, approx 50" x 40 ")

"Ties That Bind" will be on view at A.K. Collings Gallery until June 27, 2009.