Noguchi Playground

Isamu Noguchi's proposal from 1952 for a playground in the UN's New York headquarters. Didn't pass for vintage health & safety reasons. Posting it because thinking a lot about simple vocabulary and shift, nuance in quite primary forms.



First conscious of his work from the exhibition at, on recall, the Design Museum. Most memorable were the sets and props for Martha Graham.



Which in turns reminds me of Claire Barclay; her recent installation at Camden Arts Centre had amazing craft-presence and composition.

Vocabulary #3

Vocabulary #2

Toemaytoe

We're working on bags. More to come.

Texture Map

Drew this a while ago but it's a good reference point for the next chair. That is, some kind of randomisation of rigid forms. Bits of this I like and bits not; it's easy to start space-filling and to get clichés but other parts are more surprising and these are the bits I'll isolate and develop. Seeing some of the hand-cut geometric printed forms at the British Library's 'Breaking the Rules' expo reminded me of the very nice result of a flawed hand trying to make a perfect repeat.

Gunta Stölzl

Sally and I have been talking about the next chair. Will post something about the one just completed soon. She's sourced a striped linen-silk mix and we want to do something abstract that works off and improvises on the rhythm already there. Remembered seeing this in the book Bauhaus Textiles created by Gunta Stölzl in 1928. A weave in cotton, wool, rayon and silk.

Modulex

Modulex was a smaller-scale-Lego-for-grown-ups, manufactured by Lego from something like 1963 and intended for use by architects and planners.



It was commercially unsuccessful but now, it seems, much-sought-after on ebay. I like the glitches brought about by the non-monospace type applied to modular blocks.



Here's some grown-ups planning something big. And the colour palette: putties, mustardy yellows, orange-reds, powder-blues. The grey with this reminds me of Belgian artist Joëlle Tuerlinckx's pH-neutral Kodak Grey tables.

Vocabulary #1

All the time drawing things that are a bit object, a bit sign. Will post them as they come. I keep them as an image bank or kit or vocabulary.