The Words Don’t Fit the Picture is Ron Terada’s new text-based installation made in response to and sitting in front of the Vancouver Central Library. This illuminated sign stands on metal beams in front of the library’s front doors and can be seen from very far away. It is also a great example of how to securely mount large text in a public space, something we have been researching lately as a group.
Stephen Surlin, a Windsor-based artist and musician (also known as DJ Furs), recently took some time aside from his busy life as a University of Windsor Fine Arts student to discuss his current exhibition Artist as Activist and how the works within it came to be. Surlin has worked with Broken City Lab on various projects and his solo work can be seen at the SoVA Projects Gallery at the University of Windsor this week until January 28. His closing reception is at 7pm on Friday, January 28 at the SoVA Projects Gallery.
The interview can be read after the page break.
Continue reading “Interview with the Artist: Stephen Surlin”
We’ve posted about the emerging Google Street View found photography sub-genre before. Michael Wolf is another artist using found GSV images to capture the absurd, banal, and occasionally poetic existence of modern street life. When compared with candid photography, Google Street View images present an infinitely larger database of frozen moments which were never intended to be seen as anything but instructional. Wolf has sifted through these images and presented to us an account of Paris at one moment in time.
I had the idea of creating a photo series which would include areas in Windsor that have been injured or left to die due to our economic fluctuations. It would most likely resemble our Sites of Apology/Sites of Hope project.
I know nothing about who created this or where it originated from, but I find it spectacular. It would be fun to do something like this with a prominent Windsor figure of the past or present.
Justin, this reminds me of something you might have done with your LED/Arduino knowledge.
I’m just counting down the days until I retire and move to an off-the-grid cabin like this one in Maine. It was designed and built by Alex Porter for her father, and is almost entirely self-sufficient! Now that’s independent housing.
Sure it’s small, but what else does one really need?
Here is an interesting alternative to a conventional patio; all it needs is a barbecue. Who else would want to hang out in this tree house during the summer months? Unfortunately I can’t find the source of this image, but it was found on Inhabitat. I’m pretty psyched to work on our upcoming wooden letters by the way!
Soon enough we’ll be getting into the thick of winter and Sergio Lopez-Pineiro–an assistant professor of architecture at the University at Buffalo–is not going to let the snowfall go to waste this year. He is planning a large scale project in Buffalo’s Front Park which involves plowing snow into 15 giant mounds, forming a pattern of oversized polka dots.
At 42 feet wide and 7 feet tall, these mounds will dramatically alter the landscape of the park and its nearby waterfront. The title “Olmsted’s Blank Snow” refers to the famed landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted, who designed Front Park with his partner Calvert Vaux. I have included more mock-up photographs below.
Continue reading “Sergio Lopez-Pineiro’s “Olmsted’s Blank Snow” Project”
This project, appropriately called “I Wish This Was“, was created by New Orleans designer Candy Chang. Candy actually did her B.F.A. at the University of Michigan and created a design firm and record label called Red Antenna. The project you see above is quite a simple, but powerful, little proposition. She created a vinyl sticker design based on the famed “My Name Is…” badge with the intention that people would fill them out and stick them to anything in the city. Apparently her idea has caught the attention of quite a few concerned citizens; there is a Flickr album full of examples. I’ve included a few below. This reminds me of something that Windsor’s graphic designers could do as a sort of weekend public design project.