Today was my sister's 24th birthday so we decided to go to Wahaca for her birthday meal. It's a Mexican restaurant in Covent Garden, London that has some seriously gorgeous food. ¡Especialmente los churros con chocolate, mmm... me gustan mucho! Instead of matchbooks they give you cute little pink and turquoise packages with 5 sticks and chilli pepper seeds inside. Brightly coloured, simple typography and delivery, what an awesome idea! Behind the sticks theres even a recipe for salsa verde. The restaurant interior is also really nice, as are their menus and website. I can't recommend their food enough!
So yesterday I posted about all the stuff in the 'Laughing In A Foreign Language' exhibition and just upstairs was what I had came for - the Rodchenko exhibition! It focused on his photographic work but they also had loads of his posters, books design and general letterpress deliciousness. It really helped to give me an insight into his work and way that Constructivism emerged after the Russian Revolution in 1917. I've looked at countless pictures in books and on the internet of his famous photomontages but everything was even more interesting in the flesh. You could clearly see the layers of images in the photomontages, the imprint from the letterpress and the marks left from the gouache. Also some of the pieces were a completely different size to how I had imagined. A lot of the Constructivism books I've looked at had printed his book covers as A4 pages but they were absolutely tiny! For some reason this made me like Rodchenko's work even more. These are some scans from the exhibition guide I bought at the gallery. They explain really well about his move from design to photography and exactly why he did what he did. I even bought a postcard of his well known 'Books' poster yay!Labels: aleksandr rodchenko, constructivism, critical studies, exhibitions, photo, the hayward gallery
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Most people know David Shrigley's work but this installation covered two massive walls so it was pretty impressive. It was just a load of print outs of some of his hand rendered text and illustrations.Labels: david shrigley, exhibitions, illustration, the hayward gallery, typography
0 commentsLabels: doug fishbone, exhibitions, the hayward gallery, video
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Two pieces by the Australian artist Matthew Griffin - 'I'm Waiting' and 'Life Should Be Resolving' respectively. Crisp, clear and colourful photographs with text spray painted over them. It took me a while to realise that it was spray paint, in the photos it really looks like a paper cutout but it looks good either way. In the gallery these two featured as part of a whole wall designed by Griffin. The wall was also spray painted onto and the photos were hung on top of this.Labels: exhibitions, matthew griffin, photo, the hayward gallery, typography
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'Aiwa To Zen' is a video piece created by the South African artist Candice Breitz. After visiting Japan she realised that she only knew really simple words, the majority of which were already well known to foreigners, and brand names. She uses some friends from Japan to act out a random story but the things they say are made up from the words she knows rather than actual Japanese. It was really funny and well put together. The context in which you view it is very important too. Instead of the normal seats found in the video rooms of the gallery, they have installed a traditional Japanese floor with cushions and you are encouraged to take your shoes off to watch the film. You can download it from her website here. Sega, Aiwa, Pikachu!Labels: candice breitz, exhibitions, the hayward gallery, video
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This may look like an ordinary door but this is actually Martin Walde's 'The Key Spirit'. Walde likes to create installations that become situations in which the viewer is an active participant and he certainly manages to do that with this piece. There is only a pile of keys on the floor, the door and the sound of a cat sadly meowing behind it. It makes you want to interact and rescue the cat but theres so many keys. Really effective use of sound and a clever idea for an installation.Labels: exhibitions, installation, martin walde, sound, the hayward gallery
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Today I went to the Hayward Gallery at the Southbank Centre in London for the Aleksandr Rodchenko exhibition. More on that later. Luckily my 5 pound ticket also gave me access to another exhibition called Laughing In A Foreign Language. This was basically loads of humourous pieces created by artists from many different countries. I really liked a lot of the stuff on display so it was definitely worth going.Labels: exhibitions, illustration, infographics, jun yang, the hayward gallery
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Finally! I found some pictures of my favourite book from the book fair! This is a book called 'One Day In Venice' by Francis Van Maele. I was actually considering buying a copy, until I saw the £30 price tag. I guess that wasn't so bad, some people were charging £170 for some folded up piece of newspaper! Printed by Redfoxpress in Ireland.
It really captures the feel of the place and I love the use of scanned paper, handwriting and stamps - which also form the basis of my book of 100 lists.Labels: book design, francis van maele
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I had poke around some more websites of the artists who took part in yesterday's book fair. It's hard to find pictures of the more interesting pieces but this is another book by Nicola Dale called A Secret Heliotropism. Its really quite different to the other book I posted.Labels: book design, nicola dale, paper engineering
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A Book Of Small Things by Becky Adams.
Peeping Through The Corridor by Jessie Chorley.
Cuckoo Song by Nicola Dale.
Memory by Angela Davies.
Precious by Heather Hunter.
The Black Hole by Diane Jacobs.
Scrambled Sayings by Catriona Stamp.
Kie-Kie Book Series by Alix Swan.Labels: alix swan, angela davies, becky adams, book design, catriona stamp, diane jacobs, heather hunter, jessie chorley, nicola dale, paper engineering
0 commentsLabels: sound, tenori-on, video
0 commentsLabels: animation, good shoes, video
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