A journal by artist and designer John Coulthart.
Architecture
Another European artist who enjoys invented and ruined architecture. There seems to be little information about him or his work online, however, aside from the links below.
• Interview at ArtsLivre (in French)
• A gallery page
Elsewhere on { feuilleton }
• The fantastic art archive
The Royal Arch, Dundee, photographed by Edwin Smith.
It’s an odd thing to discover that a structure you’ve known about for years has been demolished for almost as long as you’ve been alive. It took a review of Britain’s Lost Cities by Gavin Stamp to inform me that the curious Royal Arch in Dundee, Scotland, built between 1849 and 1853, was no more. I only knew it from this photograph in an old Thames & Hudson book, Scotland (1955) by Edwin Smith and GS Fraser.
Even though the arch had an official function—providing a ceremonial gateway for Queen Victoria—in its free-standing singularity and historical confection it’s not very far removed from the numerous follies that still litter the British countryside. Being a long-time fan of the pointless architectural confection, I like to know that these things are still around even if they’re not so good to look at; they make the world a more interesting place.
The architect of this pastiche, which looks like a chunk of Norman cathedral dumped on the dockside, was one John Thomas Rochead whose oddly-shaped and frequently spectacular Wallace Monument still stands. I think it’s the incongruity I like about the arch, its setting and style are completely at odds and it has the fake ruin aspect of many follies, looking like a fragment of something larger. Monuments are often a sub-class of folly and Scotland has another fine example with the Scott Monument in Edinburgh.
Rochead’s arch was demolished in 1964 to make way for the Tay Road Bridge, another victim of the Sixties’ purge of Victorian eccentricity. I don’t always disagree with those purges, the Victorians had no qualms about demolishing older buildings and some of the structures whose demolition Gavin Stamp complains about were pretty awful. Euston Station in London is a soulless glass barn but I can’t see how its exterior would be improved if the heavy and dull Euston Arch had been allowed to remain as its gateway. What we’re seeing today is a reaction to that reaction, with the concrete buildings that were raised on the rubble of their Victorian forebears suffering their own waves of demolition. What goes around, comes around, and even the most apparently permanent structure can be swept away when attitudes change.
Previously on { feuilleton }
• Lenin Rising
• Dead Monuments
• The Triangular Lodge
• Pyramid mausoleum
Philosophy from The Metropolis of Tomorrow (1929).
I’ve procrastinated for an entire year over the idea of writing something about Hugh Ferriss and now this marvellous Flickr set has forced my hand. Ferriss (1889–1962) was a highly-regarded architectural renderer in the Twenties and Thirties, chiefly employed creating large drawings to show the clients of architects how their buildings would look when completed. But he was also an architectural theorist and his 1929 book, The Metropolis of Tomorrow, which lays out his ideas for cities of the future, was a major influence on the work I produced for the Lord Horror comics during the 1990s. Ferriss’s book appeared two years after Fritz Lang’s Metropolis but bears little resemblance to Lang’s simplistic tale, despite superficial similarities. Rather than a science fiction warning, The Metropolis of Tomorrow was a serious proposal for the creation of Art Deco-styled megacities.
Lord Horror: Hard Core Horror #5 (1990).
Continue reading “Hugh Ferriss and The Metropolis of Tomorrow”
Upright Camera Obscura Image of the Piazzeta San Marco
Looking Southeast in Office (2007).
Two of Abelardo Morell‘s photographs of Venetian rooms turned into camera obscuras. These look like slide projections but were made by covering the windows with black paper, leaving a pinhole which creates the view on the opposite wall. This always results in an upside down image unless corrected by an intervening lens.
Some of the photos in this series are on exhibition at the University of New England Art Gallery until January 27th, 2008.
Camera Obscura Image of Santa Maria della Salute
with Scaffolding in Palazzo Bedroom (2007).
Previously on { feuilleton }
• Vedute di Roma
• Abelardo Morell
Voyage de Nuit (etching/engraving; no date).
Michael Goro’s etchings and engravings are rich with the kind of gritty urban verisimilitude I love. His site has several more examples and there’s a good interview with the artist here.
Michael Goro, a prominent intaglio printmaker, has lived and worked in Russia, Europe, Israel, and the U.S. His work has received a number of prestigious international awards including Special Prize at the 1998 International Print Triennial in Kanagawa, Japan and Excellent Prize at the 2006 14th Seoul Space International Print Biennial at the Seoul Museum of Art (Korea). He describes his art as a “continuous creative search for raw authenticity in urban environments and human forms that are constantly changing.” Utilizing the full spectrum of printmaking techniques, ranging from Renaissance engraving to digital photogravure, he shares his unique personal experiences through imaginative imagery.
Thanks to PK for the tip!
Reflections (etching; no date).
Previously on { feuilleton }
• The etching and engraving archive