sewing project

Sewing is a good way to think. There's something about just putting the hands to work and going for it.

This little wallet was made using a sample of fabric that we had lying around in the office - it's an exterior grade upholstery material.

goodtimes poster

The students in my class made these posters for the 'goodtimes' event our studio hosted this evening.

viaducts fantasy

it's a gathering of small rental workshops and independent cafes/shops underneath the Dunsmuir and Georgia viaducts, with a cycling & pedestrian concourse sculpture park above. you could call it an 'infrastructural symbiosis,' or as i also like to call it, 'viaducts fantasy.' ideas in collaboration with Chris Forrest. not entered into the recent competition.

this is what it's like there now:

colouring book update

Copies of 'Colouring Under The Vancouver Viaducts' are available at Vancouver Special.

Under Cambie Bridge : page 5 inspiration.

from the archive

Here's one from the archive, Concrete Pillow Bench. This was made for part 2 of Bill Pechet's Very Heavy Studio for the UBC M.Arch in 2005.

At the moment I'm teaching a studio (my first one) at the UBC M.Arch. It's called 'The Haptic City.'

moving space diorama

I was able to install the moving space diorama

just the other day, after a couple of months of planning.

Before:

This public art work by Jill Anholt (Moving Pictures, 2005) was vandalized last year and the exposed metal interiors were attracting garbage. It was such a great little pair of spaces, but they were in a bad way and I wanted to try to make them better somehow. I came up with a bunch of ideas and the one with the concentric circles stuck - I made a maquette with cardboard (as shown in earlier posts) and was able to do some tests at 1:1 scale. I tried a number of materials and realized that hanging would be best structurally and that whatever it was, it should be weatherproof and easy enough to install and remove. I contacted Jill and explained where I was coming from, and asked her permission for doing this installation. She explained how it was taking a long time for the City to get around to fixing her piece, and she graciously agreed to let me do it.

After:

It was a straightforward installation. We swept up broken glass and cigarette butts and burnt bits of paper (one of the interiors is charred from a fire), and removed bent bolts from holding up the original 'lens' pieces. The layers of pink pleather that we put up are just scored, bent, and stuck to the 'ceiling' using double-sided tape.

We've been back at different times of day to see how it looks. It's interesting to see how the daylight changes the effect of the layers.

If you'd like a copy of the 'announcement' pdf document for this piece, send an email to spacemakeplace@gmail.com

progress in pink pleather

circles used for cutting: top of short shot glass, bottom of tall tumbler, small funnel, top of martini glass, side plate, soup plate.

maquette with circles

Ken Lum map sightings

In the winter I had a commission to design the conceptual map that went along with the Ken Lum exhibit at the Vancouver Art Gallery. It was a great job and people seemed to be pretty happy with the results. The Gallery has had to order another 10K because the first batch of maps were all taken - the show has been very popular. I happened to have my camera with me the other evening when I saw a girl on Robson Street holding her copy!

It made me think of other 'sightings' the map has had. Lisa Parker was at the gallery on opening night and took this photo, which she then posted on her flickr site:

The map has been indexed on the Canadian Design Resource:

And it has also made its way onto Wallace Koopman's artlog where he shows a nice composition of lunch and map in the gallery cafe:

Well isn't that sweet. Thanks folks.

ok maybe this

maquette with aloe

colouring books

uhh

colouring book beginnings

so i'm making a colouring book. 'colouring-in under vancouver viaducts' is the working title. here is a sneak preview of one of the progress images - there will be 9 images in total:

...and i was going through some stuff the other day and found these images, which are from almost a year ago!

two hours worth

6pm

8pm

6pm

8pm

space notes

1. A SPACE ITSELF

-how did this space come about?

-what makes up this space?

-how is this space defined?

-how can this space be described?

-what shape does this space have? (volume)

2. THE USE OF A SPACE

-how was this space intended to be used?

-how is the space being used at present?

-how could the space be used?

3. FLOW IN A SPACE

-what comes and goes with/in this space?

-what interacts with/in, and with what, in this space?

-what transforms what over time with/in this space?

4. BEING IN A SPACE

-what do people do in this space?

-how do i feel in this space?

-is this space desirable for living conditions? (both human and environmental)

5. TEXTURES OF A SPACE

-where surfaces of the entities within this space come together, what textures result?

-in what way do the textures within the space support or prohibit the coming together of other entities there?

a few spring sketches

drawn with cold hands!

Burrard Bridge north side

Main Street Viaduct north side

Main Street Viaduct south side

Cambie Bridge west side

this week at the studio

been away...

here are a few of my sketches from recent travels:

Price's viaduct, Central Otago NZ

Poolburn viaduct, Central Otago NZ

Mackenzie Lake, Fjordland NZ

Hana Bay, Maui

Hamoa Beach, Maui

oh yeah

oh yeah future trees

rope and knots