November 14, 2009
Photo essay of post-war Yugoslavian monuments and architecture by Belgian artist Jan Kempenaers, from the Crown Gallery site. “Spomenik” means monument, and all of these structures were meant to commemorate WWII losses and point to progress and a generally utopian future.
November 13, 2009
Paris Shoes at 51 W. Hastings, in Vancouver, possibly 1919. Maybe if shoeboxes still looked this beautifully white you wouldn’t have to have salespeople constantly disappearing into the back. I somehow doubt that the uniform whiteness of this bank of shoe boxes could every happen again, though, and if it did it would be twee rather than pure utility.
November 11, 2009
My grandfather landed on a Normandy beach on D-Day when he was 35 years old. He was a Canadian officer on loan to a British regiment, so he landed with the British on Sword Beach rather than with the Canadians on Juno.
New house in an old neighbourhood of Wroclaw, Poland, in the NYT today. Spruce on the outside, particle board on the inside, and the whole thing cost US$80,000 to build.
Space Ghost: “Not now honey please, I’m in the middle of a giant space war. What can I do? Aliens! So I’ll talk to you when there’s peace. In space.”
Bjork: “Yeah?
November 10, 2009
Tip from a friend: any wall hangings left out on the deck during early fall renovations will be gnawed on by squirrels. This sign now knows how real it really is.
Via OWI – Office for Word and Image. Photo: Vercruysse Frederik
November 8, 2009
This chapel in Tarnów, Poland, is by Marta Rowińska & Lech Rowiński of the firm Beton (photos by Beton) and was completed in 2009. Being a completely non-religious non-churchgoer who really dislikes all the tortured religious iconography and narrative (and could do without the cross), I don’t know why I’m so attracted to all these humble churches (see also here and here) but I think it’s a relief to see a building whose utility is somewhat non-utilitarian and undefinable.
Source unknown; please tell me if you know. I can’t stop looking at this room. Someone has covered every single one of the books in brown paper. Because it doesn’t really matter what you read.
My mother found it somewhere – it’s vintage. Georg Jensen, stainless steel, so it’s Danish, but what is it for? She didn’t know either. I’ve looked for it online for years but no luck, and no, it’s not on the Georg Jensen site anywhere.
