Saturday, July 24, 2010

Red





At the end of history we have two architectural caricatures the serpentine pavilion by Jean Nouvel and Anish Kapoor's ArcelorMittal Orbit (which has been very nicely covered by Martin of Kosmograd), that seem to embody fragments of Russian constructivism ironically sponsored by global capital. Instead of being monuments to the masses these are schrizophenic objects that represent the disjunction in architectural practise and its context. They neither have the sense of intrigue and adventure that Russian constructivism had nor the formal ambition of Tschumi's Parc de la Villette's Follies. We are in the process of evolving a language with no memory. And what is most intriguing is that these assemblages of red-confusion come through Jean Nouvel and Anish Kapoor who have works in their name that I personally find quite interesting.
But being red, the Serpentine Pavilion does give some good photos...

Sunday, July 18, 2010

Letters from Zihuatanejo


(photo "Rain" by Michelle Compton, UK, sourced from here)
Some years back I remember reading an excerpt from Murakami's After Dark, describing a street scene seen by one of the characters as "Even at a time like this, the street is bright enough and filled with people coming and going—people with places to go and people with no place to go; people with a purpose and people with no purpose; people trying to hold time back and people trying to urge it forward." I find the quote as beautiful as Wong Kar Wai's Chunking Express slow motion shots of Cop633 as he sips on his black coffee in the rain&people filled street of Hong Kong as the beautiful Faye Wong looks on, like Italo Calvino's Marco Polo experiencing different cities in the same city, as spatial explorations get entangled with time, memories, inhabitants and languages. For now it is summer here and happy memories, old friends and familiar places keep me company...while time passes in beautifully choreographed slow motioned shots.