Bear with...

I have now embarked on my month long trip to Scandinavia, so apologies for the lack of posts. It will be a bit like this for a while, but, as much I miss blogging, I am taking in lots of inspiration from Finnish art, architecture and design for future posts!! Alvar Aalto and Marimekko as well as the Helsinki Arts Festival have so far been my favourites! Keep in touch readers x

Elle Fanning in "The Curve of Forgotten Things", A Fashion Film for Rodarte

The Floating Cinema by Studio Weave and Somewhere

The Floating Cinema is a Ex-British Waterways boat, that has been converted into a compact moving-cinema by architects Studio Weave and artist duo, Somewhere (Consisting of Nina Pope and Karen Guthrie). The customised narrow boat is navigating the waterways of the five Olympic host boroughs this summer, including Tower Hamlets, Newham, Waltham Forest, and Hackney, and will feature free on-board screenings, quirky canal tours, talks and workshops. The project is part of the UP Projects' Portavilion programme, a contemporary art project, which commissions temporary pavilions in east London. The old boat, originally called "Cole" and owned by Annie Myers and Hazel Saunders, was refurbished into the current cinema. The interior of the boat was fitted with 12 bespoke cinema seats and lined with blackout curtains, which were folded into a intricate pattern. 

Images: Studio Weave

Curtain Call by Ron Arad at the Roundhouse

Gabriel and Shira Klasmer

Greenaway & Greenaway

Fashion designer Hussein Chalayan

Gabriel and Shira Klasmer

Images: Creative Review Blog

Last month, designer Ron Arad created this temporary cinema screen, which was installed in the Roundhouse, London, and consisted of a total of 5,600 silicon rods. Arad said of Curtain Call: “Walk in, penetrate, cross the moving images to get inside the cylinder. You’ll be engulfed by images – a captive, but also a creator. It’s amazing what exciting things happen on both sides of the curtain. I can’t wait.” The cylindrical space showcased films, live performances and installations until the 29th August. Although closed now, the images above and below show how the space was used and occupied with this colourful occupation of a theatre that has been open since 1846. Each day visitors could see work by Babis Alexiadis, Hussein Chalayan, Mat Collishaw, Ori Gersht, Greenaway & Greenaway, Christian Marclay, Javier Mariscal, SDNA, David Shrigley, and students from the Royal College of Art as part of the piece.

Images: Dezeen

Magdalena Frackowiack by Aitken Jolly for Dansk A/W 2011

Images: Fashion Gone Rogue

BP Portrait Award 2011

I went to the annual BP Portrait Award at the National Portrait Gallery today, a free exhibition showcasing the very best in contemporary portrait painting; "From intimate and personal images of friends and family, to revealing paintings of celebrity sitters, the exhibition presents a variety of styles and approaches that together illustrate the outstanding and innovative work currently being produced by artists of all ages and nationalities". Five prize winners are shortlisted each year, but this year's selection didn't catch my eye as much as the painting's I have selected below. 

Katherine (and Millie) by Barbara Skingle

Barbara Skingle studied painting at Alberta College of Art and Concordia University, Montreal, Canada. Her work has been seen at the annual exhibitions of the Royal Society of Portrait Painters (1997, 2004) and in group exhibitions in Canada.

The portrait is of Skingle’s daughter, Katherine, with the family’s pet canary, Millie. The portrait was created from a combination of sittings, reference photographs and memory. Katherine has sat for her mother on a number of occasions, who says: ‘Katherine is tuned in to both the dark and light of this world which is why I have put her in a slightly defensive posture.’ (Text taken from National Portrait Gallery)

Abi by Nathan Ford

Nathan Ford took a BA (Hons) degree in fine art at Byam Shaw School of Art. His work has been seen in solo exhibitions in Bath and group exhibitions including those of the Royal Society of British Artists (2001, 2002) and the Royal Institute of Oil Painters (1999–2006), whose Winsor and Newton Young Artist of the Year Award he won in 2001. His work was included in the BP Portrait Award in 2000 and 2010.
This portrait of Ford’s friend Abi was painted from a single sitting in February 2011. (Text taken from National Portrait Gallery)

Howard Zinn - A People's Historian by Raoul Martinez

Raoul Martinez left formal education at the age of seventeen in order to work as an apprentice in the studio of the artist Paul Benney. Since setting up his own studio, Martinez has forged a career as a portraitist and documentary film maker. He is working towards his first solo exhibition.

Shortly before his death last year, the historian, playwright and activist, Howard Zinn, granted Martinez an interview and sitting for his ‘Creating Freedom’ project. Among Zinn’s extensive list of publications, he is probably best known as the author of A People’s History of the United States(1980).  (Text taken from National Portrait Gallery)

Just K by Architekten Martenson und Nagel Theissen

German studio Architekten Martenson und Nagel Theissen have designed this five-storey house in Tübingen, Germany. The grey facade is clad in rubber, which meets with raised seams, accentuating the envelope of this membrane-covered roof. The interior is clad with exposed softwood, forming an open living area on the ground floor, and wrapping up the stairs to create the bedrooms above. The house is fairly adaptable and can change according to the occupiers needs, for example two separate tenants could live in the building as there is a staircase to the first floor. This has been a trend that has been increasing with popularity in new build houses, does it create a warm, natural look for an interior, or are architects forsaking sustainability in favour of image?

Images: Dezeen

Ingrid Dabringer’s Witty Map Portraits

Canadian artist, Ingrid Dabringer creates these witty artworks by painting over existing maps of various countries, from the Manhattan subway to a geographic map of the Himalayas. She collects various maps and through their line work and patterns, creates paintings, that seek to find a kind of meaning, "We all move about on our own maps—in real time and space—as we become, endure, find, react—our life takes shape and we interpret our meaning." Do the figures and characters have a meaning or are they just the result of a random meeting of roads, rivers and contour lines? 

She describes the thought process behind her work as; "The exaggerated and distorted images that I illustrate lend themselves nicely to the narrative questions of “why and how.” As I worked on the maps, I found myself remembering the Galapagos Islands, realizing I had never known where the Isle of Mann lies, and singing German lullabies. The process has taken me back to the places I’ve lived and the memories associated with them: Vienna, Jakarta, Beirut, Mexico City, Quito, Boston—and of course Canada, from Kingston to Toronto, Vancouver, and now the Soo." 

Images via Flavorwire

Why I don’t wear trouser suits by Lucy Worsley in The Times today

Read the full article here.