ludo in soho

These ludo pieces were made at 20:1 scale.

I took them to Soho Square for a few hours on a pleasant summer afternoon.

I used a disposable camera to take these photos! I have just made them digital for the first time.

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

floor update!

Today was a beautiful day. I went for a bike ride and decided on my way to check out how my floor is doing. Turns out it is doing well! - enjoying some sunny rays.

Some joggers passed through while I was there.

Some time in the last week or so someone has decided to add their own paste-ups to one of the side walls. I like how they are random and organic and kind of weird.

seed balls hung from viaduct

A project I did a couple of years ago. The idea was to hang seed balls from the viaduct, over a grassy patch.

The seed balls were made out of compost (from our kitchen worm bin), a bit of powdered clay (had to get a new blade for the blender afterwards), some wildflower seeds, and a bit of water. They were hung with bright orange yarn that was leftover from my M.Arch thesis project. More photos are on my website under the dark green button. The Main St viaduct is still my favourite one in the city.

more floor pics

Thanks so much to unurth for posting photos of my floor project on his blog over the weekend!

new floor under Burrard Bridge

we finished the floor on Saturday morning, but it took a while before the sun came out again and we could get a decent photo. this was taken yesterday around 7pm.

photo by DG

floor progress

it's about a third of the way complete.

floor surface prep

this morning at Burrard Bridge - photo by DG

shelves project update

Since I installed the shelves at the beginning of April there has been moderate activity. On occasion I have left items on the shelves, such as books and pens, which I found elsewhere or which were given to me for this purpose. I have been trying to encourage a give-and-take of objects; I had put up a small sign using pushpins on the edge of one shelf which read "leave and item, take an item".

One time I left about a dozen second-hand books. When I went back two days later, ten books were left. Two more days later, nine books were left, but half of these had had their covers turned out to face passers-by, as if on display. It was kind of nice. The next time I went by, there were only three books left. Then the next time, there weren't any books.

I left some more books and pens another few times. Just stuff I had found elsewhere. Once I left Boggle. And then one time my friend told me he'd seen a stuffed toy animal on the shelf, shoved in-between! I hadn't put it there! Something was happening! When I went to look at it the next day, the stuffed animal was gone. Everything was gone. It was just the shelves and my little sign.

After a while I thought maybe I should throw a 'shelf party', to bring a new energy to the shelves. There is a lot of pedestrian traffic in the area. Then about a week and a half ago I went to the shelves and found that they had been kicked off! Someone had just come and kicked them off!

The notched in-between parts of the original shelves remain affixed to the wall, creating a new set of very small shelves. My 'leave an item, take an item' sign is now gone but a red push-pin was left, piercing one of the raw wood edges. Curious, this red push-pin, considering the pins that I had used were white.....

The shelves are still big enough for some items.

shelves project

some photos from my recent 'shelves project'