Month: April 2017

Lucas Samaras

Lucas Samaras, “Book 4″, Wood, Nails, Needles, Glass, Beads

Lucas Samaras is a Greek artist born in Kastoria, Greece in 1936. He studied at Rutgers University on a scholarship, where he met artists Alan Kaprow and George Segal. Samaras participated in Kaprow’s “Happenings” and posed for Segal’s plaster sculptures. His work included painting, sculpture, performance art, and photography. Samaras worked with multi-media collages, and, by manipulating the wet dyes in Polaroid photographic film, created a series he called “Photo-Transformations”.

“Book 4” is a multifaceted object and a miniature world in istelf. Although it includes eight fictional narratives writen by the artist and surprises such as pop-ups, pockets, interlocking layers, foldouts, and hidden pamphlets, it is not a storybook. Encrusted with needles and shards of glass in addition to brightly colored beads and pieces of mirror, it is difficult if not dangerous to handle, guarding the secrets within.

Reblogged with thanks to https://annleckie.tumblr.com

The Dunmore Pineapple

John Murray, The Pineapple Dome, Dunmore Park, Stirlingshire, Scotland

Dunmore Park, the ancestral home of the Earls of Dunmore, includes a large country mansion, Dunmore House, and grounds which contain two large walled gardens. These walled gardens, built with high stone or brick walls, sheltered the gardens from wind and frost, with the possibility of creating a microclimate in which the ambient temperature could be raised a few degrees above that of the surrounding landscape.

A building containing a hothouse was built into one of these walls in 1761 by John Murray, the fourth Earl of Dunmore. The hothouse, which is located on the ground floor of this building, was used, among other things to grow pineapples. The hothouse was heated by a furnace system that circulated hot air through cavities in the wall construction of the building.

John Murray left Scotland after the initail building was built to become the last Colonial Governor of Virginia in America. Upon his return to Dunmore, he added the upper-floor pavilion or summerhouse with its pineapple-shaped cupola and the Palladian lower-floor portico to the building’s structure.

The pineapple is around 14 metres (46 ft) high and constitutes a stunning example of the stonemason’s craft, being a remarkably accurate depiction of a pineapple. Each of the curving stone leaves is separately drained to prevent frost damage, and the stiff serrated edges of the lowest and topmost leaves and the plum berry-like fruits are all cunningly graded so that water cannot accumulate anywhere, ensuring that frozen trapped water cannot damage the delicate stonework.

 

Wakizashi, Nobukuni School

Wakizashi, Unsigned, Mumei (Nobukuni School), End of Namboku Period, 1380 AD, Second Generation of the Nobukuni School in Kyoto

Nobukuni was likely a son or grandson of Ryokai Hisanobu of the Rai school based in Kyoto. He later studied under Sadamune of Kamakura in Soshu province (present-day Sagami, Kanagawa prefecture).

This is a remarkable sword that was made over 600 years ago in Kyoto by the revered Nobukuni school of Yamashiro province (present-day southern Kyoto prefecture). The name originally inscribed on this sword disappeared in the process of shortening what was once a wider and longer naginata. The sword is in near pristine condition despite being centuries old.

The Sanskrit character engravings on both sides of this sword are simply magnificent. One one side of the sword it reads “Fudomyoo” (The Fire God worshiped by the Samurai) who changed himself into a sword. The symbolic engraving features a dragon trying to swallow the sword. The other side features the bonji character and (blood) grooves that served to lighten the sword and provide decoration. This bonji character was used by Buddhist monks as offerings to the gods.

Many scholars agree that Nobukuni produced some of the finest engravings the Japanese Samurai sword world has ever seen. One very important detail to note is that this sword was tested by Yamano Kaemon who was the leader in his Yamano school – a school that was responsible for testing of swords for sharpness and smooth cutting ability. To test this sword, he cleanly cut through one arm and through the torso of a dead human being (near the waistline).

Gold letters on the tang of this sword acknowledge that a highly respected person inspected and certified this sword. The test would have occurred in the Edo period (1700s-1800s). There were 3 main schools for testing in Edo Period at the time, namely Nakagawa, Yamano, and Yamada.

This sword is a shortened naginata. A remarkably similar looking Nobukuni Wakizashi sword from the same era (likely the same swordsmith) can be found in the Kyoto National Museum.

Croft Lodge Studio

Kate Darby and David Connor, Croft Lodge Studio, Leominster, Herefordshire, England

Architect: Kate Darby; Designer; David Connor

The existing 17th century ruined cottage was adjacent to a common. To the east end of the cottage sat stables that had fallen down and were beyond repair. The strategy for the Croft Lodge Studio was not to renovate or repair the 300-year-old structures: but to preserve them within a new high-performance outer envelope. This means that on the buiding now there are two roofs and two walls, an old one and a new one. Everything about the ruin was retained including the ivy, the birds nests, old fabric, the cobwebs and the dust.

Wolfgang Stiller

Wolfgang Stiller, “Matchstickmen”, Wood Installation

German artist Wolfgang Stiller created the “Matchstickmen’” using head molds that he had laying around his studio. The giant matchsticks created of thick pieces of lumber are standing or lying in the room. The faces are all different and meant to look as if they simply emerged in the wood after burning each flammable tip.