Oh and another postcard with a cartoon showing Paris as a heart, I took apart and made 2 versions from it.

New Postcards

Hi Rachel,

Here are some postcards I've been working with over the weekend. 2 are based on a postcard of the Eiffel Tower made from a measuring tape. I've created a image of an outstanding structure outside the Périphérique - Niemeyer's Bourse du Travail in Bobigny - but made it from spaghetti, and flour on graph paper then photographed it. The stencil I made for the flour seemed more interesting than the image so I photographed it as an alternative version.

Also there is a postcard of the Eiffel Tower made in the shape of a man holding a baguette. I've done a version of the Bourse du Travail with a dancing woman, as Niemeyer (bit letchy) often based his buildings on women's bodys.

Sx

Hi Suzy,
This will be a very quick post as its valentines day and i'm being very anti-social working with some new ideas...
I've been looking at a schematic diagram of the new road system Thomas Sharp proposed for Oxford in the 1950's. There is an elegance and sense of order in the diagram (and throughout Sharp's proposals for Oxford) which defies the organic and disorderly way in which cities usually grow. In some ways this reminds me of the themes we explored at Thamesmead where we saw the control of the town planners come into conflict with the way people lived in and used their homes.
I have been playing around with the friction between the plan and the actuality in this image. I envisage that this might become a plywood cut-out where we paint images from the ring road (and perhaps the peripherique?? - not sure but something to consider) on some of the sections.
Must go for now.
Rachel

Hi Suzy,
These would be really interesting ideas to work with - particularly that feeling of compressed energy bursting outwards. Formally they give the sense of something exploding, dense in the middle and then breaking out into space.
I saw the Rachel Whiteread piece in psycho buildings. Overall I found the show an interesting experience to enjoy with a toddler (Zola loved it). Perhaps this affected my take on it all - very immediate and experiential, not terribly deep. What did you think about the Whiteread piece?
I've just been looking around at shows that are on or coming up and found some information about a show by Monika Grzymala opening soon at the drawing room.
http://www.drawingroom.org.uk/intro.htm
Its interesting that she measures the lines of tape in her drawing installation in kilometres. Its as though she's trying to create the intensity of the city's time and space through the repetitive lines on the gallery walls.
Must go as its late. Keep me posted on how your ideas develop.
Rachel x

Hi Rachel,

I'm really fascinated by the image of the mattress and the shadows it throws. I've keen to work with it, perhaps making a bigger statement than in the objects I've been working with so far. In some ways it seems quite complete in itself in the photos that Mike took, and whatever intervention happens needs to not detract from it but also be quite confident.

I think what I like about the mattress is that it suggests several different things which are all relevant to our project:

The way the springs overlap and interlink, are like exchanges of information and ideas, in an anarchic and unpredictable way. In the invite there seems to be this sense in the way you have incorporated it into the design.

The springs and shadow suggest roads or underground networks.

But it is also like a city in itself. With a compressed energy that is trying to burst out of its confines (connected with ideas about boundaries)

I'm interested in trying to explore this last meaning more. Maybe placing imagery or objects near or around it that make this meaning more explicit.

S

P.S. Take a look at Rachel Whiteread's piece in Psycho Buildings http://www.southbankcentre.co.uk/visual-arts/hayward-exhibitions/psycho-buildings/artists