Monday 28 March 2016

in praise of forgetfulness

When I was young, and pondering my ultimate resting place, I was pretty sure that my gravestone would be sandstone or limestone as time would eventually remove all trace of the inscription, and eventually it would fail to serve as even a marker. The alternative option was slate, on the grounds that it was cheap and unpretentious. I did not want one of those jarring granite gravestones that seemed utterly impervious to age, providing a discordant element amongst their lichen covered colleagues. 

There is a seasonality to things, and that is right. 

The same applies for buildings. A stately home might be beautiful and imposing, but nowadays they are struggling to find any function that can pay the bills. This is not a criticism of our current lack of ingenuity. The stately homes were never functional. They were always intended as a temporary retreat, the ultimate boutique hotel for the super wealthy, where they might reside and invite their friends, before moving on. There was bustle and staff, but that was all to service the gentry. A stately home might sit at the centre of a massive estate, but the profits earned by the estate would be conspicuously consumed by the stately home, in effect it was a classy bonfire of available cash. 

We should not be unduly encumbered by the past. There are some remarkable buildings out there, and the best of them should be conserved, but we should not feel duty bound to preserve every relic of a bygone age. 

Sunday 20 March 2016

Grey Gardens an exhibition at Dundee Contemporary Arts

Grey Gardens 

27th February 2016 until 1 May 2016 (open daily 11:00 to 18:00)

@ Dundee Contemporary Arts 

part of Scotland’s Festival of Architecture 2016

This exhibition under the distinctly permissive theme of Art and Architecture inspired by nature and modernity makes excellent use of two hefty galleries at Dundee Contemporary Arts.

To my shame I have not visited the DCA before and the building itself is rather spectacular, in common with the Fruitmarket Gallery in Edinburgh this is another post industrial architectural repurposing by Richard Murphy Architects. The DCA also incorporates a couple of cinema screens, and is the sort of lively arts hub that would be the envy of any city. Dundee is posing a serious threat to Glasgow as Scotland’s design led regeneration capital. It is also possible to pick up a nice lunch and sit outside on the rare clement days. 

The exhibition includes material on the Glenrothes and Cumbernauld appointed artists for those new towns, as well as material on post war modernist housing in Scotland. Personally while I love European modernism or Los Angeles case study houses, the Scottish variety simply reminds me of unloved municipal buildings. Perhaps there is something to do with the Scottish lack of light and prevailing wetness that makes epic windows and expanses of concrete impractical and inappropriate. However with the recent resurgence in the appreciation of brutalism, Scottish modernism is due a reappraisal. There is material on the Las Pozas jungle follies of Edward James, which look like the lost inca cities of Piranesi. There are also some photos demonstrating how the differing light picks out different details in Carlo Scarpa’s Tomba Brion. 

addition to the usual photos, there are a variety of models, a film loop of Scottish modernist houses, many commissioned by doctors, a loop of a fascinating and odd film about Edward James, though leaving the lengthy credits on the loop might deter those dropping in. 

I am sure that I have not covered everything, and as with the DCA itself, there is plenty here to repay repeated visits. 

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Monday 14 March 2016

Shelter an exhibition at Kirkcaldy Museum and Art Gallery

Shelter 

5th March 2016 until 5th June 2016

@ Kirkcaldy Art Gallery and Museum 

part of Scotland’s Festival of Architecture 2016

This is an exhibition of two parts, one gallery includes images from the publications of Lloyd Kahn, editor in chief of Shelter publications in California. Along with Buckminster Fuller and Stewart Brand he was an early advocate of the benefits of geodesic domes, though he later recanted his position with a further publication on how impractical they were. The images are from around the world and show some fairly extreme shelters nestling in some at times pretty inhospitable places, along with some stories of people for whom the home comforts need be little more than a roof and some walls. A collection of his books is also available for browsing. In case you have not guessed there is a strong whiff of the American West coast counterculture. 

The other gallery consists larger more glossy photos of a variety of Scottish shelters (I think) some are ad hoc galleries, some seem to be more reflective spaces and some are the sort of places where readers of Permaculture magazine might aspire to dwelling. There is also a strange concrete castle thing on top of a very rocky promontory that seems to be some sort of striking art statement. 

This is certainly not hipster Apartment Therapy territory, these are shelters at their most basic, that are totally in tune with their environment, having largely been crafted from things picked up along the way. It is a thought provoking and inspiring exhibition that is proving popular with visitors.

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Sunday 6 March 2016

Nobody's Home an exhibition by John Maher

Nobody's Home

John Maher Photographic Exhibition

26th Feb 2016 until 10th Apr 2016

@ Andrew Carnegie Museum, Dunfermline

 

This is a wee gem of an exhibition, around twenty photos of abandoned houses on the Isle of Harris taken by former Buzzcocks' drummer John Maher. The island is so remote, and houses so isolated that they are often closer to the sea than they are to a road. Accordingly when the residents finally come to stop living in these houses, there is little demand for them, and even getting a removal van to the door can be impractical. So the when the hardy souls that have lived there move on, they seem to simply be abandoned. Furniture can be left and the door is closed. Time passes, sheep shelter in the living room, the ceiling falls in the kitchen, but like a church that is always left open, there is something that compels those passing by to treat these relics with respect.



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