Month: September 2017

The Tulou

Chinese Traditional Architecture: The Tulou

Tulou, mainly distributed in the mountainous areas of South China’s Fujian province, is a unique type of rural dwellings of the Hakka people. These odd-looking structures were mostly built between the 12th and the 20th centuries, primarily aimed at defending against the bandits and robbers. Usually a tulou is made into a vast, enclosed and fortified earth building, capable of housing up to 80 families living a communal life.

Although most tulou were of earthen construction, the definition “tulou” is a broadly descriptive label for a building type and does not indicate construction type. Some were constructed out of cut granite or had substantial walls of fired brick. Most large-scale tulou seen today were built of a composite of earth, sand, and lime known as sanhetu rather than just earth. The tulou is often three to four stories high. Often they would store food on the higher floors.

The noted Fujian Tulou, designated as UNESCO World Heritage site in 2008, is a small and specialized subgroup of tulou, known for their unique shape, large scale, and ingenious structure. There are more than 20,000 tulou in southern Fujian.

Phallic Figure

Phallic Figure, Burnished Ceramic with Slip and Incised Decoration, 200 BC-500 AD, Colima, Mexico

The state of Colima was home to a number of pre-Hispanic cultures as part of Western Mexico. Archeological evidence dates human occupation of the area as far back as 1500 BCE, with sites here contemporary with San Lorenzo on the Gulf Coast and Tlatilco in the Valley of Mexico. One period of the area’s development is called the Los Ortices era, which began around 500 BCE. During this time the elements that characterize the pre-Hispanic peoples of Colima appear, including shaft tombs and a distinctive ceramic style called rojo bruñido, or burnished red.

The next phase, called Comala and centered on a site of the same name, was from around 100 to 600 CE. Comala people perfected burnished red pottery and created representations of people and animals with skill and fluid lines. The best known of these figures are known as the fattened dogs. The Comala site shows influence from Teotihuacan. Around 500 CE, another site in Armería developed along the river of the same name.

Wolfgang Tillmans

Wolfgang Tillmans, “Damon, Shower, Head Up”, 1995

Wolfgang Tillmans is a German photographer and is a member of the Royal Academy of Arts. His diverse body of work is distinguished by observation of his surroundings and an ongoing investigation of the foundations of the photographic medium. He was the first photographer to be awarded the Tate Museum’s annual Turner Prize.

Tillmans was considered the documentarian of his generation, especially its London club and gay scenes. In a discussion of his work, Tillmans said, “It was never my intention to be seen as diaristic or autobiographical. I was not recording the world around me or my tribe or whatever. There is a big misunderstanding there that still persists to this day.”

Tillmans’s series of photographs taken of his friends Lutz and Alex,  was published in the 1992 issue of “I-D”magazine and are considered important photographic documents of the 1990s. Starting in 1992, Tillmans lived and worked in London until he relocated to New York City in 1994. During this London period in his life, he began to exhibit his work  more frequently and developed a new exhibition style.

Wolfgang Tillmans’s new presetation of his work consisted of non-hierarchical arrangements of unframed photographs pinned or taped onto the gallery’s walls. Color photographs were juxtaposed next to inkjet prints and postcards, set against magazine clippings of his own images. These arrangements reached from the floor almost to the ceiling. Tillmans views each exhibition as a site-specific installation and often addresses the exhibition as a larger composition.

Tillmans is gay, and has expressed his support for gay rights explicitly in the past. He has covered Pride events since the 1992 Pride parade in London. The concept of community figures prominently in his most recent works.

Robert M Ball

Illustrations by Robert M Ball

Robert M Ball is an illustrator, designer and comic maker living and working in London, England. The illustrator is best known for his “Game of Thrones” art series called “Beautiful Death”, in which he draws an artistic interpretation of the latest episode’s fallen character. An illustration by Robert M Ball for every episode of “Game of Thrones” was commissioned by HBO for use online and in various print applications.

Brian Luong

Artwork by Brian Luong

Brian Luong is an illustrator currently residing in Southern California. Pulling inspiration from landscapes and natural subject matters, he creates scenes and subjects that range from being tranquil to otherworldly. Brian employs the use of muted colors, meticulous hatching, and textures in order to create bold illustrations. For a darker, gloomy approach, he’ll render using white on black to create compositions that appear to be dimly lit by moonlight.

Ydessa Hendeles

Two Installations by Ydessa Hendeles

In a distinguished career as gallerist, collector and curator before she started to make her own works, Ydessa Hendeles has fashioned a distinctive space in the contemporary art world. Internationally renowned as a pioneering exponent of curating as a creative artistic practice, her groundbreaking work is widely discussed and embraced as a model by leading members of the new generation of curators emerging today. In her exhibition making and artistic practice, Hendeles often explores notions of difference and diversity, and especially the way representation and distortion, appropriation and assimilation can filter group and individual identities.

The Top Six Images:  “From Her Wooden Sleep”, 2013, utilises display to create a narrative space where appearances and roles are distorted. A vast collection of pseudo-human wooden mannequins, each subtly unique in size and expression, is arranged within its own gallery. These figures seem to form a distinct community, and confronted by them the visitor is suddenly cast in the position of ‘outsider.’

Despite their human likeness, shared characteristics of the mannequins separate them as a group, and their collective stare isolates the visitor, transforming him or her from the observer to the observed, the guest to the interloper. This space of distorted roles and perceptions is enhanced by a series of funhouse mirrors that line the perimeter of the space, contorting the reflections of visitors and making direct reference to the untrustworthy nature of representation.

The Bottom Four Images:  “Partners (The Teddy Bear Project)”, 2002,  is a vast display comprising more than 3,000 family-album photographs of people posing with teddy bears, alongside display cases that contain antique stuffed animals. The installation adopts the toy as symbol for the consolatory and encouraging power of artworks, and highlights the relationship between people and their objects of affection.