Mediumly-interesting fact: Nelson’s Column stands at 169 feet. The relevance of this morsel? Angela Palmer’s new installation of rainforest tree stumps in Trafalgar Square, sale which would once have stood as tall as the Column but now are rather lower to the ground, pill more roots than trunks. Palmer’s work is intended to highlight the destruction of the rainforest. Much better than the 4th plinth people. That didn’t quite work did it?
Dieter Rams @ The Design Museum
The Design Museum is excellent because it gets down to business: if you can’t sit on it or reasonably hang it on the wall, use it to build bridges or fill a teacup, you won’t find it there. This ethos of substance as well as style echoes the title of the current Dieter Rams exhibition, “Less and More”. He was Head of Design at Braun and every time you see something ergonomic and pleasing to look at on an appliance, like an iPhone for instance, you can see his influence. His ten design principles:
Good design is innovative.
Good design makes a product useful.
Good design is aesthetic.
Good design makes a product understandable.
Good design is unobtrusive.
Good design is honest.
Good design is long-lasting.
Good design is thorough down to the last detail.
Good design is environmentally friendly.
Good design is as little design as possible.
Illustration by Hiromasa Iida
C Words: carbon, climate, capital, culture @ Arnolfini Gallery in Bristol
I’m really looking forward to the Design Competition event at C Words this weekend, hope you are too! The public judging and prize-giving of a design competition for a rebranded RBS as the Royal Bank of Sustainability is convened and co-judged by Amelia Gregory. Artists and designers were asked to create logos or posters communicating something ‘new, possible and radical’.
C Words is a two-month build-up to Copenhagen, using a multitude of free events, installations and discussions to generate interest and action on the topics of carbon emissions, our changing climate, capitalist structures and the culture wars. More about active engagement than simply mulling over points, PLATFORM, a group of artist-activists, aims to question how culture will grow up in the context of a low-carbon future.
Bob & Robert Smith @ Beaconsfield
Bob and Roberta Smith, who is actually one person, will be showing their/his works to celebrate and commiserate the end of their/his residency at the roomy “Factory Outlet” space at Beaconsfield in Vauxhall. Smith is known for painting signs and there are references to the previous usage of the space, as a “ragged school” for poor little boys and girls to learn to read, in the use of text.
Passing Thoughts and Making Plans @ Jerwood Space
This exhibition at the Jerwood Space takes the tack that seeing the process behind an artwork is interesting in itself. This isn’t always the case – looking at the sketches for a work do sometimes make you grateful for the myriad choices the artist had to make to get it to the end result but it can also be a bit boring. This exhibition focuses (ha!) on artists who use photography as part of their process and escapes boredom by including interesting artists such as Cornelia Parker and Rachel Whiteread, whose work you can imagine hinges on perfect recollection of spaces. I am persuaded about this exhibition, but I will never be persuaded about “alternative versions” of songs at the end of special edition albums.
Categories ,Angela Palmer, ,arnolfini, ,Beaconsfield, ,Bob and Roberta Smith, ,C words, ,Copenhagen art, ,Cornelia Parker, ,Design Museum, ,Dieter Rams, ,Ghost Forest, ,jerwood space, ,Passing Thoughts and Making Plans, ,platform, ,Trafalgar Square
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