Frames of Reference

What Once Was Imagined

Susie Freeman & Liz Lee: What Once Was Imagined

This summer I visited São Paulo to install a new work at Oscar Niemeyer’s OCA pavilion in Ibirapuera Park. The exhibition INVENTO is best described as a science museum designed by artists. Created by matching significant scientific advances from the past 150 years with artists whose work acts as a response to each invention, I used thousands of medicines in packets to make a giant Amazon mantilla which illustrates the development of pharmaceuticals from plants to pills.

The exhibition runs until October 4th after which we hope to mount What Once Was Imagined in a venue closer to home. Continue reading “What Once Was Imagined”

Manningtree (Slight Return)

We came back to the North House Gallery in Manningtree to see Fin · River · Swift, a new exhibition by Julian Meredith. This piece is called Elmigration, a large woodcut measuring 3 metres by 1 metre, printed from a single plank of elm wood. Continue reading “Manningtree (Slight Return)”

A Walk Around The Village

Benabbio is a hilltop village above Bagni di Lucca in Tuscany. I found this photo (c.1920) in a book in the house we rented there this summer. The house was just below the church tower. Continue reading “A Walk Around The Village”

A Short Diversion

Driving to work the other day I was diverted from my normal course and led to discover the Isokon building. I’d never seen it before but instantly it seemed familiar and true, as if it were an archetype, elegant and beautiful, the epitome of 1930s utopian modernism. Continue reading “A Short Diversion”

The Tower Of Babel

The Tower of Babel presently stands alongside the Medieval & Renaissance sculptures in Room 50a at the Victoria & Albert Museum in London. It’s an exhibition of 3000 miniature ceramic London shops stacked precariously 20 feet high, ranging from bargain basement shops down at the bottom to exclusive and aspirational shops up at the top. Continue reading “The Tower Of Babel”

An August Garden

Water water everywhere

My water lily seems to be enjoying the wet August weather and has put on twice as much growth as usual. This latest bloom reminds me of a sea anemone. Continue reading “An August Garden”

A Walk Along The Walls

An aerial view of Lucca and its magnificent walls planted with trees, a green belt around the city, a circular park punctuated by six gates and eleven bastions. In the foreground is Baluardo San Paolino. Continue reading “A Walk Along The Walls”

A Walk Along The Promenade

According to The Rough Guide to Tuscany & Umbria – The best town on the coast, Viareggio is also one of Tuscany’s biggest seaside resorts, graced with an air of elegance lent mainly by the long avenue of palms that runs the length of its seafront promenade. We walked the promenade but we didn’t see the sea. It is separated from the town by a series of gated private bathing beaches. Continue reading “A Walk Along The Promenade”

A Walk Along The Pier

Southend pier is the longest in the world. It was built in 1830 to allow access across the mudflats for the boatloads of visitors arriving at the seaside resort from London. They came in search of its health giving waters and sea breezes. We came for fish & chips but Jamie and Jimmy’s Café was closed. Continue reading “A Walk Along The Pier”

Announcer

Thirty paintings by David Mabb at the William Morris Gallery – The Arts & Crafts Movement meets Russian Constructivism. Mabb has superimposed pages from the Kelmscott Chaucer by William Morris with images by El Lissitzky from For The Voice, a book of revolutionary poems by Vladimir Mayakovsky, to create a double celebration of utopian art. Continue reading “Announcer”