chandelier

everyone flips over the chandelier in my new york apartment…    the structure was designed by two swedish architects – Gunnar Cedervall and Björn Stillefors – and is marketed by a design company in stockholm called form nasielsky (http://www.nasielsky.se/eng/index.htm).     they’re not quick to respond when you contact them – but they’re very helpful and efficient once they do…

this is the image that i saw that interested me. and this is a diagram of their various chandelier designs:

when i saw these designs i  thought of a set of pink glasses (circa 1960) in my mother’s extensive holdings. they were a wedding gift that she generously agreed to donate to my chandelier project.   i have a clear, low wattage bulb (on a dimmer) in it and it gives off a soft (very flattering) light and casts beautiful refractions and shadows around the room.    in other circumstances i’d like a 40 or 72 stem fixture and to fill it with a mixture of flea market finds…     but i think it’s really handsome with simple clear stemware as well.

“triple disguise”

liliana porter, “triple disguise” (detail) 2008,   graphite drawing and collage on paper, 20 x 20 inches.

andrea higgins’ painting “dorian”

completed (see entry 28 march) in time for a thematic exhibition at the gallery called “summer reading.”     this diptych is a “portrait” of dorian gray based on oscar wilde’s novel “the picture of dorian gray.”

andrea higgins (american b. 1970) “dorian” 2008, oil on canvas and oil on panel, 2 panels, 28×18 inches each, overall dimensions28×36 inches.

another detail:

timothy horn opening at the de young museum

timothy horn’s project, “bitter suite” opened at the de young last night. it is awesome. it’s up until 12 october.

jim campbell at the berkeley art museum

this recently-acquired piece by jim campbell is now on display at the berkeley art museum:

jim campbell is an m.i.t.-educated engineer who makes artwork that deals with information — the way it is stored, communicated and perceived. since 2000, he’s been making artworks that use so few L.E.D.s (more than a thousand times fewer than the number of pixels on your computer screen) that a viewer shouldn’t understand what they’re seeing. but because of the brain’s ability to interpret abstract data and “fill in” the gaps in the information needed to create a complete idea, the moving image can be discerned. by abstracting the data into this extremely low-resolution form, he’s manipulating our voyeuristic tendencies — revealing information and at the same time obscuring it…

this large-scale piece, from a series he calls “home movies” utilizes clips from found, vintage home movies (believing that while home movies are very personal, everyone’s look the same) which are made visible through the flickering l.e.d.s which reflect off the wall (think plato’s allegory of the cave). not only a gorgeous piece, but a conceptually brilliant one.

jim campbell “home movies 920-1″ 2007, custom electronics, 920 l.e.d.s and found home movie footage, 17×24 feet. i shot this video and david stroud edited it.

a great table

designed by san francisco-based architect, louis schump, in american walnut.

brideshead

i watched the mini-series when i was 21 and was much influenced. oxford. the clothes. the 20’s. boys in love. mind blowing.

i just read the novel for the first time (see my page “what i’ve been reading”). and recently learned that a film version based on the novel is due out this autumn. the first one-half of the novel focuses on the relationship of charles ryder and sebastian flyte at oxford. the new film, it seems, focuses instead on the mid-life affair between ryder and sebastian’s sister, julia. moreover, the film minimizes the catholic component of the story.

what?!

polling friends who’ve read the book (admittedly, all 10-20 years ago) or seen the mini-series, led to the unanimous opinion that the affair between and charles and julia is a minor part of the story… one huffed “the affair with the sister was just a chapter tacked onto the end.” well, not exactly…

but, waugh, who converted to catholicism, said the book was about “the unmerited and unilateral act of love by which God continually calls souls to Himself.” so the religious aspect of the novel is really key.

i’ll see the film, but doubt it will actually be about the book… it stars emma thompson, michael gambon, ben wishaw, matthew goode and hayley atwell.