Objects. Collectives. Middlebrow is not the solution. One hundred years ago — or a hundred and one, depending on who you talk to — William Rider & Son, Ltd, published a pack of cards whose mysterious cartoons — the Tower, the Devil, the Fool — were destined to sink their roots into the dreaming loam of the 20th century imagination. At the time, Tarot decks were only found on the Continent, especially Italy and France, where the 78 cards were (and are) used for a popular trick-taking game as well as for fortune telling.
Inspired by the notion that the cards encoded mystical knowledge, the occult scholar A.E. Waite, who also published an esoteric “key” to their meanings, spear-headed the design of a new deck that both honored and transformed traditional images that stretch back — at least — to the Renaissance courts of northern Italy. The Star in its Renaissance (above) and Rider-Waite-Smith (below) editions. For readers who do not spend time with teenage Goths or hermeticists, some information may be in order. Glen's friend wants to draw "All the Buildings in New York" I've lived in four out of five of NYC's boroughs, and even though two were as a child when I had no say in the matter, I always thought this a fairly rare achievement.
But in terms of New York coverage, here's a far better achievement (in progress): Australian illustrator James Gulliver Hancock, now Brooklyn-based, wants to singlehandedly draw "All the Buildings in New York. " Hancock is selling off prints of his drawings, which we hope meets with rent-paying success -- that would be a killer way to make a living! But his motivations are not purely financial, as he explains in this video: HOBBY: James Gulliver Hancock, Drawing All Of the Buildings in NYC from Harvest on Vimeo. For a more nuanced understanding of this illustrator, we must turn to Core77's own Glen Jackson Taylor, who is also Australian and therefore must know Hancock.
Glen, what's he like? Art for the everyone. Easternbloc.ca. Conference: Deschooling Society [London] [Image: Rainer Ganahl, Seminar/Lecture, Linda Nochlin, Glory and Misery of Pornography, colloquium "fémininmasculin", Les Revues Parlées, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, 2/2/96 1996, 51 x 61 cm. Courtesy the artist.[ Conference: Deschooling Society :: April 29 – 30, 2010 :: Southbank Centre, Purcell Room, Belvedere Road, London SE1 8XX, UK. This two-day conference brings together international artists, curators, and writers to discuss and debate the changing relationship between art and education.
Speakers have been invited to present critical ideas on collective and participatory practice, pedagogical experiments and how such art can be understood and discussed. Deschooling Society takes its title from Ivan Illich’s seminal 1971 book, one of the most influential radical critiques of the education system in Western countries. Full conference programme details will be available shortly on the Hayward Gallery and Serpentine Gallery websites. The Omnibus Roundup – more art about cities, NYU 2031 and the Metropolitan Flora Project. Brandpost by Johan Thornqvist. Maybe we have art on our minds more after our featured interview with Spanish artist Roberto Mollá , but we have noticed quite a lot of noteworthy city-focused illustration, installations, and video this week.
Introduced us to the work of Johan Thörnqvist , who sketches charming miniature urban scenes on existing photographs. Scott Burnham posted an interesting piece on street art and urban interventions that mentions, among others, the double take-prompting street installations of Mark Jenkins , whose work is always worth revisiting. SpaceInvading (via Archinect ) showed us that buildings can appear in unexpected places and at unexpected sizes. GOOD pointed us to Hyperallergic’s photo gallery of NYC street sculpture . And if you haven’t seen this video yet, take a two and half minute break to watch Space Invaders, Pac-Man, Donkey Kong, Pong and more take down New York City. A well-executed and just really cool short film by Patrick Jean:
The Omnibus Roundup – Earth Day, urban mobility, murals, billboards and subway etiquette. {*style:<i> Up There from Mekanism on Vimeo . </i>*} Yesterday was Earth day. It was also the three-year anniversary of Mayor Bloomberg’s announcement of PlaNYC 2030. Financial and political obstacles have impeded progress on many of the 2009 goals — of the 127 initiatives proposed on Earth Day 2008, only 51 have been entirely completed.
Some see this as a “failed dream .” In this week’s feature , Vishaan Chakrabarti discusses Curitiba’s Bus Rapid Transit system, pioneered by architect-mayor Jaime Lerner. Subway etiquette posters by Jason Shelowitz Taking over the MTA in a different manner is the “Metropolitan Etiquette Authority.” Speaking of public art, this week Shepard Fairey completed his new mural on Houston and Bowery. Atlantic Yards opponents are feeling conflicted this week as Daniel Goldstein, founder and now-former-spokesperson of Develop Don’t Destroy Brooklyn, agreed to sell his apartment to Forest City Ratner for $3 million . Society6. Cal Lane. Peinture ... Paint. Next American City » Daily Report » The Revolution Will be Locally Funded.
Canada’s largest city may be experiencing the most intense public transportation-related psychodrama in North America. Five years after Toronto Mayor David Miller unveiled his Transit City proposal for a citywide network of light rail lines, two years after Ontario government agreed to fund half of them, and one year after a new mayor announced that “Transit City is Dead,” the project finally appears to be moving forward. A unanimous vote by Toronto regional transportation officials on Wednesday cleared the way for C$8.4 billion in new transit investments between now and 2020. In the process, conservative Mayor Rob Ford, whose antipathy towards alternative transportation modes verged on the truly anti-urban, has lost his influence. It’s an exciting step for a city that has wavered wildly on transportation issues over the past decade, but which is in need of better public transit. Construction on the Eglinton project is already underway. Ford won. Thereisnobox: architecture model.
Parallel Image Display Is Low-Res and Gorgeous - Parallel image - Gizmodo. Circuit Gallery | Home Page. Who the Hell is Gord Smith? The Most Important Canadian Artist You've Never Heard Of. Gord Smith was at the top of the Canadian art world in the late 1960s and the early 1970s. A Montreal-born sculptor who originally learned to weld with a torch his older brother used to rebuild old cars, Smith's rise to prominence was a rapid one.
By the time he reached his early thirties, he had already built up an impressive list of public and private commissions, collaborated with architects like Arthur Erickson, and exhibited with such international heavyweights as Henry Moore and Barbara Hepworth. Of the many sculptures Smith produced during this period, the most significant was surely the Canada Screen, which was commissioned by the Canadian government for its pavilion at Expo '67. A $65 000 project at the time, the finished product was a massive 110'x12' Cor-Ten steel sculpture that weighed approximately 13 tons. By the late 1970s, however, Smith's life and work was in ruins. The story of Smith's ongoing 50-year career is as fascinating as it is unknown.
Public Journal Current Issue :: Art, Culture, Ideas :: York University. Pascaline knight ~ artist pouet.