work in progress

Hi Rachel,

This is to give you a sense of how things are developing with the piece for the Art and Architecture show.

The images I had been working with, the photos i took of the buildings and grounds were naturally quite geometrical and felt a bit restrictive with the projection. My starting point for where i have got to now was the plastic cover for B's alphabet stamps (that came free with a newspaper). When projected it reminded me of an ariel view of a group of buildings. So I started working with a google earth image of Brunel University, and cutting into and painting onto the plastic.

I painted onto some paper on the wall to try and give a sense of how the projection might work with a wall painting. I'm not sure its totally successful, but I could imagine it working if the painting was a bit more pared down and selective. I really like working with this push and pull between the projected image and the painting.

A couple of images also of using different materials with projecting.

Surfacing briefly

I feel i should post on the blog, just to say i'm here! My time and energy has been directed elsewhere in the last 8 months as you know. It has taken a long time to reach a stage where i get some 'me' time, but Poppy has started napping on her own, so i get an hour or two every day when i'm not holding a baby now. I think it will be a while before i'm really involved in my/our work again! But i have the occasional thought/idea. Its great to see what you're doing and your ideas develop for the work for Brunel's art and architecture exhibition.

Bradford

Hi Rachel,

While in Bradford over Easter we went out looking at a couple of significant buildings from the early 70's which are now empty, which coincidentally were both designed by Matt's Dad's firm John Brunton and Partners.

The Bradford and Bingley Building Society headquarters in Bingley. It has a very sympathetic relationship with the hills, and the zig zag flow of the 5 rise locks. Since the financial crisis and government bail out the savings part of the business was sold to Santander. It is now up for sale/let.

Also the Yorkshire building society headquarters in Bradford.

And we took a look at the big hole in the middle of Bradford at the moment. There were plans to 'regenerate' the centre. The existing buildings were demolished, then the financial crisis of 2008 happened and it has been left derelict. There are posters around the site saying bitterly, 'Bradford's regeneration, The Sky's the limit'

Modern ruins in general is quite a key theme of our work, starting with the Thamesmead project, and something I've been thinking about a lot since going to the derelict Iraqi embassy last summer. I was interested to read this piece in Frieze January issue http://www.frieze.com/issue/article/decline_and_fall it has some interesting references for other artists who have worked are working with this theme such as: Martha Rosler’s 1993 video How Do We Know What Home Looks Like?,where she explores Le Cobusier’s Unité d’Habitation at Firminy-Vert.

I wonder about the danger of sentimentality towards Modernism, a nostalgia for an era of greater certainty, "The variously thoroughgoing or superficial archaeology of architectural and artistic Modernism that has exercised so many artists in the last decade is patently, on one level, a discourse on ruins in a Romantic mode."

I've put all the pics on http://www.flickr.com/photos/barbaresiandround

S

Brunel University

Hi Rachel,

I've put the photos of Brunel University on www.flickr.com/photos/barbaresiandround and found out a little about the history of the Campus at Uxbridge.

It came about from the radical changes made in further education post-war, whereby each education authority had to submit plans for its own area with a view to meeting the growing needs of the population. Brunel university was a development from Acton Technical college. In 1957 it was decided that the facilities at Acton were holding back the college's growth. One site contintued at Acton with National Certificate and craft courses, and approval was given for the site at Uxbridge to focus on technology and was called Brunel college of Technology, then was granted University status in 1966. In 1971 it left the Acton site and the whole University was brought together at Uxbridge.

The site and buildings were designed by Sheppard, Robson & Partners www.sheppardrobson.com and the main phases built in 1965-7. The idea of the students feeling loyalty to the University as a whole rather than just departments was important to the concept. The buildings are interconnected and are designed to bring students of different discaplines together.

S

more Landy

Was wondering about Oxford / Paris Correspondence and how we made art from very little, or things considered without value - literally discarded. How does it relate to ideas about giving art value? It probally has little relationship now. It's the opposite of contracts medieval artists had with a church they were being commisioned by, where the amount of lapis lazuli and gold leaf in a madonna would be specified.

I went to the closing party. It was interesting to see the types of work people had thrown in. Lots of big painterly painting. What people decide is a failure is to a large extent about the contemporary situation and that is a collective thing.

Michael Landy Art Bin

Hi Rachel,

I took one of our postcards to the Art bin at the South London Gallery last weekend. Michael Landy was there and asked me about it. It was one of the bourse de travail or job centre designed by Niemeyer in the northern Parisian suburb of Bobigny.

I guess he wants to make sure that people aren't coming and putting their rubbish in it. But I had to fill in quite an official form about rights to the work and it was archived. I was looking at his tweet www.twitter.com/LandysArtBin and he was talking about peoples contributions. He seems to value things sent from a long way or where there is alot of effort or loss involved.

Sx

Berlin Wall Paintings

Here are some outdoor paintings/mosaics I found around Berlin.