Sun drops dancing on air

A friend wrote of the strangeness of the sounds that keep her awake in her new rural home and I wrote this to remind her of the city she has left.

This morning a sound appeared: the heavy, slicing noise of a police helicopter hovering overhead. The sound grew so big it vibrated from the walls of the courtyard, it filled the house so solidly that I couldn’t determine on which side the machine was, until I spotted it over the children’s playground. The cutting utterance it makes is so loud it is muted and ends in an absorbed thud. When it left the distant police siren was whimpering.

The double glazing is so solid that the rain dances as silent glazed sun drops in the air eddies. The sound of weather is better heard by the passing of cars and the firm hiss of wet road under tires. Airplanes are boring through the atmosphere above the cloud layer; the birds are flying low after their air space was dominated by the huge metal insect.

This is Sunday in the city. As the minutes pass the rain grows heavier and falls into neat lines. Normally I like to travel or simply to walk and feel the sky around me but today would better be spent indoors and cleaning the windows to watch the rain more clearly.     

growing a little too old...

universiteit van Amsterdam

Some of the university of Amsterdam buildings are being demolished. They were designed in the mid-sixties. The architect was Norbert J.J. Gawronski- a city council architect. The buildings were designed to fulfil a tight brief in their era, they must have been whole-heartedly modern when completed. There was a lovely neat box modernism about them, I liked the pattern of the curtain walling, there was a satisfying rhythm. Now they are being replaced for something of "this century" something more suitable and more contemporary.

This is beginning to become a little personal: this building style was modern for me, I grew up unsure if I truely liked this but I loved the idealism that surrounded architecture of this time. Yes there are far too many really bad examples of rectangular box, curtain-walled buildings around us however there are some good ones as well. Before too many are lost I would like to see them documented and ensure some remain. The sixties had style and it may still be neglected, let's recognise some of the good elements, be selective but remember not everything from this era is too old and too out of date!

...and still the sun shone

I had a day off in London to do exactly what I wanted. I love walking and learning through my feet. The walking scale gives such an intimate view of a place. I walked to Kensington Gardens and the Serpentine gallery. I wanted to see the Peter Zumthor pavillion and the gardens by Piet Oudolf.

 I walked back through Hyde park and took myself for a splendid lunch.

South Ealing Station

Later that afternoon en route to Heathrow I changed tube trains at South Ealing. It is the most gorgeous example of Art Deco. It embodies that zeal for the new, the excitement of the Modern Age and the passion for travel.

Wales is not always wet...

The sun has shone upon me for three days, it is as if I have brought it with me. I began on Tuesday leaving wet London behind me for a day trip to Wales. When I arrived the coast of north Wales was bleached by sunlight. The white and palest pastel houses of Llandudno smiled towards the blue sea. The winter winds and the salt air eat those facades, it is better not too look too closely.

from the beach at Llandudno

 Far from the palm-framed promenade on the faint horizon a wind farm reflects the light, the blades continually rotating like crazed stick men animations.

the promenade

I visited the Mostyn gallery, originally begun by Lady Mostyn in 1901 to exhibit the work of women artists and now expanded into a even lovelier space by Dominic Williams.I'd seen it on television but it was better in reality.

a Monday afternoon

Sometimes it only needs a very little journey to change how I view the city I live in. Today was one of those trips: two hours in an electric boat (powered by green energy), motoring around the canals of the inner city. It was the first day of full sun for so long. Literally the perspective changes, being suddenly so much lower down in the water.

view from the boat

 

 

 

It was a Monday afternoon, it felt deliciously naughty to take the afternoon off on a working day. 

Seeing the familiar from a different angle makes it look new. This was pioneering when built and the rivets are still magnificent. It is much beloved amongst film location hunters and it forms the backdrop to several war movies. It was mechanized a few years ago so that the bridge men no longer have to crank it open. It still clunks satisfactorily as it moves and bounces gently when the bridge lands back in place after opening. It doesn't matter how long I live here, it always cheers me to see bridges and boats working together like this and I'll wait patiently for the road to open again.

along the Amstel

 This is the city as created for the tourists: lovely wood bridges edged with a lace of lightbulbs.

Installing rocks

Installing Newfoundland Fissure 2010 Photo courtesy of Art Affairs Gallery

Summer has arrived in disguise; the greying clouds and bursting rain falls feel more autumnal than weather for July. Things are quieter now the Mapping the Art exhibition has been installed and opened in Amsterdam (it continues until the 27th of August at Art Affairs Gallery, Veemkade 354). It was my first show I had co-curated and I was priviledged to have the help of Antoinette de Stigter the gallerist with this. 

It was so easy to persuade me to take a few days off afterwards and I had a "busman's holiday" in Brittany. I returned to the rocks I drew early in the Coastlines Project. There is nothing like stunning pink granite to really cheer me up.   

Pink Granite Coast, Brittany

Rock structure

For the first time we drove from the Netherlands. It is a very long journey with challenging traffic en route. We went via the coast of the Somme Valley. It is an incredibly powerful landscape because of its recent history. We both have great-uncles who were here, mine returned to South Africa but two of his remained buried in France amongst other Australians and the very many others who were lost. This landscape of loss is so very beautiful it is almost bewildering. The soil is so productive and the earth folds in gentle hills before slipping towards the water. On the lip with the sea a medieval town remains: Joan of Arc was imprisoned here, William the Conquer left from this region. It is a place of remembering and we stopped.

On the road with dimming evening light

Flying sticks

Quietly recovering from the extraordinary experience of building a large installation sculpture in under two weeks. A few months ago I was approached to make a work for Natuurkunst Drenthe, I had put in an application the year before and due to funding problems it did not go through and suddenly this year the project was on. It turned out to be a really busy time for me: a group show opening in Padua, Italy, another group one in New York and this sculpture. (Prior to departure for Drenthe I spent several days packing artwork for shipping).

The theme was "borders" and the work was to be site specific using forest materials. It was a project jointly supported by Stadsbos Beheer in the forest of Schoonoord which enabled me to use the local materials and my thanks go to Stadsbos beheer particularly Bernard who helped me source wood. My work is called the "Flying Wall". It is the simplest form of border, the fence division. It recalls earlier wattle and daub architecture. I wanted to show both fixed rigid borders and the fluid nature of these borders, demarcation lines change.

Rear view of "Flying Wall" during installation, photograph: Jantje Tijmes

Early morning light on installation

 The piece is made using American Oak, a non-native species chosen originally for its ability to act as a filler in the woodland but now growing rampant and is regularly pruned back. The oak sticks are tied to rubber cord that gives the piece its flexibility and allows it to bow under the weight while maintaining the wall shape.

"Flying Wall" note ground cover of American Oak saplings

 

Detail and already intergrating into woodlands so much that spiders are starting to spin webs within it.

The tallest point (approximately 6 metres above ground) the fence continues around the trees

The exhibition will continue until the beginning of January 2012. I want to go back and see how it weathers in snow. It is intended to be on show for six months and the designed lifespan of this is approximately 2 years.

Thanks are due to many people and organisations, I'd particularly like to thank Natuurkunst Drenthe, my sponsor Derby Rubber Products Europe BV for the rubber tubing and tie cord, my first assistant Jantje Tijmes for helping tie many of the sticks and for her help when I had an accident during the construction. Thanks too Stephen Sheppard for his invaluable help chopping and preparing the sticks and installing the highest section of the piece also to Lucas and Gerda Tijmes who also helped in this project and Dick Lubbersen who brought a ladder and his help exactly when it was needed. Best wishes to my fellow artists on this project whose company made this project all the more interesting.