Chelsea Flower Show 2010: Prisoners and homeless people create biggest garden ever

Chelsea, London UK
Prisoners and homeless people have designed and constructed the largest garden ever built at Chelsea Flower Show. The 6,000 square foot garden is constructed from recycled bottles, old washing machines and donated trees. Up to 50 homelessness charities have taken part, with more than 75 people working on the site at a time. All have received vocational training in woodwork, planting and other horticultural skills that they can use to get employment in the future.

Telegraph

Victorian and Albert Museum opens it's new galleries

The Renaissance City Courtyard at the V&A

Victorian & Albert Museum, London UK

The V&A's new Medieval & Renaissance galleries open this December, designed by architects MUMA. The 10 new galleries will showcase its amazing Medieval and Renaissance collections. The £30m new additions fill a whole wing of the museum and contain more than 1800 treasures from AD300 to 1600. The collections chronicle how European art and design changed from the fall of the Roman Empire to the end of the Renaissance era.

The V&A boasts the greatest collection of Italian Renaissance sculpture outside Italy, including pieces by Donatello and Giambologna. The highlights of the new galleries include; Leonardo da Vinci's notebooks, Santa Chiara Chapel: the only example of Florentine Renaissance church architecture outside Italy, Choir screen from the Cathedral of St John at 's-Hertogenbosch (1610–13), the Netherlands, The elaborate Gloucester Candlestick (1104-15), The Symmachi Panel: one of the finest surviving ivories from the Late Antique period in Rome.

The V&A is creating innovative new displays which place objects within their original social and cultural context. In a review for the Daily Telegraph, Richard Dorment describes the exhibition: "The 10 contiguous galleries occupying two floors of that vast building on the Cromwell Road feel like a museum within a museum, where every effort is made to give a feel for a church interior or Renaissance study without turning the galleries into a succession of stage sets."

Mark Jones, Director of the V&A, said: ‘For the first time, these new galleries present the V&A’s medieval and Renaissance treasures as continuous displays telling the story of European art and design from the year 300 to 1600. We hope that the new displays, featuring some of the most beautiful and historic objects from our collections, will inspire all our visitors.’


Above: V&A Curator Kirstin Kennedy

Guardian

The call of nature at auction

UK gallerist Edward Horswell has reported a growing interest in all things animal related, especially lions, tigers and bears immortalized in bronze. "Our perennial love of animals and a postcrisis quest for quality have led to six-and-seven-figure prices for bronze animal figures, whether 19th, 20th or 21st century," said Mr Horswell.

The mid-19th century marked a turning point for animalier, the French word for the school of artists who made animals their subjects (and frequently used zoos for inspiration). Mr Horswell reports, "animalier has been stubbornly recession proof. Since the banking crisis, we're finding that bronzes from the 19th century are particularly strong. Prices for the very best pieces have increased by at least 50 percent in the past ten years."

Some of the biggest stars of the period are Isidore Bonheur, Pierre-Jules Mene, and the so-called Michelangelo of the Menagerie, Antoine-Louis Barye. In the early 20th century, Rembrandt Bugatti, a member of the Italian automotive family, created the genre's most coveted pieces. Today his work, based on subjects in the Antwerp Zoo, can fetch millions.


Above: Bugatti's Babouin Sacré Hamadryas (1909–10), one of 11 casts, sold for a stunning $2.3 million at Sotheby's in late 2006, driven up in part by buyers pushed out of the market for Giacometti sculpture, which now can sell for $20 million. (The previous Bugatti baboon on the market--in 2000 at Tajan in Paris--brought in about $965,000.)


Forbes.com

New trendy Ashmolean and old-fashioned Pitt Rivers

Above: Pitt Rivers does look similar to how it did in the 1901 photo. Now the display cases are chock-full and the spacious-lloking hall is crammed to the gunwales with stuff.

Above: Architectural spaces have been created at the Ashmolean but these are slightly disconnected from the exhibits. Here a load of unlabelled Chantrey plaster busts have been used as decorator items in a stairwell. Is that wrong? It is the modern way that salvage is used.

Oxford UK - TWO Oxford museums have been given a makeover in 2009: the Ashmolean and Pitt Rivers, the former at £60m costing more than any museum makeover since the £100m British Museum roof project, and the latter costing £2.5m. What do you get for your money? Both museums were founded on substantial early collections, with the Ashmolean (the oldest museum in England) having a more classic spread from Egypt to Pre-Raphaelite situated in a series of galleries, while Pitt Rivers was more ethnographic including huge North American totem poles and medieval English spells, located in many display cabinets in one large hall.

The money at the Ashmolean seems to have been spent on creating space - an architect designing a museum - and not on showing the collection, although the determined visitor will find plenty to satisfy. The labelling was not complete, and it was not obvious what some of the items were. This cannot be said of Pitt Rivers where the architecture and joinery has been left intact and the handwritten labelling intricately comprehensive. The pleasant and spacious ambience of a modern museum without a cluttered mass of exhibits is the Ashmolean. For an original Victorian museums the Pitt Rivers has no peer.

Both museums have free admission and both invite schoolchildren - older children at the Ashmolean and the youngsters at Pitt Rivers.

Super Squat

Lassco, Brunswick House London

A group of leading designers are currently 'squatting' at Lassco's Brunswick House as part of London Design Festival running from 19th - 27th September. The five designers are exhibiting collections and installations in the house all week.

Lassco

Mars out, Venus in . . . a Verona garden

Classical allegory in an Italian renaissance garden by Thornton Kay



Above: Venus, Cupid, Bacchus and Ceres painted by Peter Paul Rubens in 1613. This was his version of Sine Cerere et Baccho friget Venus an allegory for ‘without food and wine love grows cold’.



Above: Giardino Giusti by J C Volkamer c1714



Battered sculpture of a warring Mars looking slightly coquettish above a bat wall fountain, perhaps signifying that Mars is sleeping, and has been banished to a location outside the garden


Googlemap of Giardino Giusti
View Palazzo e Giardino Giusti in a larger map

Verona, Veneto Italy - VERONA sits in a broad valley down which grand tour nobility entered Italy from Europe before heading east to Venice or down to Florence and Rome. In 1570 Agostino Giusti, Knight of the Venetian Republic and Gentleman of the Grand Duke of Tuscany, chose a site on the flood plain backed by a bluff which overlooks the town, and close to the old Roman theatre, to build a small palazzo and garden now known as Giardino Giusti.

“It’s an old saying, and a true one, Ceres and Bacchus are warm friends of Venus.” wrote Terence in his 170BC play The Eunuch, certainly seen in the nearby Roman theatre, and one of the allegories retold in the sixteenth century statuary at Giardini Giusti the meaning of which is that without food and wine love grows cold.



Above: Venus and a dolphin, probably carved by Alessandro Vittoria 1524-1608. In two other niches stand Ceres and Bacchus which give the ensemble the meaning Sine Cerere et Baccho friget Venus an old adage from Roman times meaning without food and wine love grows cold. Latin inscriptions carved into the bases of the three statues read: On Ceres: Ne Quid Veneri Deesset Cum Baccho Ceres Associatur meaning Venus needs nothing, because Ceres is here with Bacchus. On Venus: Sine me laetum nibil exoritur: statua in viridario miti pofita est ut in venere Venus esset meaning Without me nothing charms: my statue suits such a beautiful place. On Bacchus: Ambulator ne trepides Bacchum amatorem non bellatorem ad genium loci dominus p meaning Be not afraid, I am Bacchus a lover not a fighter, the spirit of this garden.

Rubens visited Verona and in 1613, perhaps influenced by the gardens, painted Venus being kept warm by Bacchus’ wine and Ceres’ bread. The muscular baroque treatment of the women in the painting is similar to that seen in the statuary figures of Venus and Ceres at Giusti.

Famous visitors included the composers Faure and Mozart, and nobility Cosimo de Medici, Czar Alexander I and Emperor Joseph II. Goethe also visited and surprised locals by decorating himself with cypress branches picked from Giusti and traipsing around town in a flamboyant manner. He described the huge cypresses as ‘soaring into the air like awls … a tree whose every branch aspires to heaven and which may live 300 years deserves to be venerated.’ A century later in 1868 Karl Baedeker wrote that the ‘somewhat neglected Giardino Giusti’ was celebrated for its 200 cypresses some of which are 400 to 500 years old and are said to exceed 120ft in height.

The view from the top of the craggy bluff inspired John Ruskin to write:
Now I do not think that there is any other rock in all the world, from which the places and monuments of so complex and deep a fragment of the history of its ages can be visible, as from this piece of crag, with its blue and prickly weeds. For you have thus beneath you at once, the birthplaces of Virgil and of Livy; the homes of Dante and Petrarch; and the source of the most sweet and pathetic inspiration of your own Shakespeare ; the spot where the civilization of the Gothic kingdoms was founded on the throne of Theodoric, and where whatever was strongest in the Italian race redeemed itself into life by its league against Barbarossa. You have the cradle of natural science and medicine in the schools of Padua ; the central light of Italian chivalry in the power of the Scaligers ; the chief stain of Italian cruelty in that of Ezzelin ; and, lastly, the birthplace of the highest art for among these hills, or by this very Adige bank, were born Mantegna, Titian, Coreggio, and Veronese.















Above: Oracular mascaron, or mask designed to banish evil spirits, c1570 by Bartolomeo Ridolfi tops the view up from Giusti’s entrance gates. Ridolfi was a Veronese stuccadore for Palladio who worked in nearby Vicenza.

SalvoNEWS

[Images by TKay Salvo Llp © 2008 courtesy of Giardinoa Giusti]

Restored ballerina

La Ballarina was unveiled in the Royal Botanic Gardens in Sydney. [pict. Dean Lewins]

Royal Botanic Gardens, Sydney Australia

Charles Summer's La Ballarina was installed in the gardens in 1883 to give the parklands a classic European feel. In the 1970s the life-size marble sculpture was removed because it was considered an old eyesore. "People were more into modern art," Botanic Gardens Trust executive director Tim Entwisle said.

Summer, a successful Australian-born sculptor who lived in the Italian city of Carrara, copied La Ballarina from a work by early 19th century sculptor Antonio Canova. She was placed in storage and somehow lost her head, a hand and foot, Mr Entwisle said. Jacek Luszcyk re-sculptured her head using marble from the same Italian location the original material came from. Now the lovingly restored statue of the pensive looking dancer, whose fingers gently touch her new chin as she casually balances on the toes of one foot, is back.



Site

Open-plan living on a budget

Above: It’s amazing what you find in a nearby skip. Photograph: Luc Roymans

There is stylish decluttered living, and there is photographer Leo Ribbens's Antwerp warehouse. With its prison-issue beds, nailed-together sofa and a bath that resembles an agricultural feeding trough, it is a brutally industrial space – all bare concrete, exposed brick and raw wood. "I like functional materials," Ribbens says. "But my home never feels cold." His house is an example of recycled living at its most extreme: he rummages in skips, begs timber merchants for their leftovers and scours demolition sites. "It's a game for me to spend as little as I can."

The bedroom has floor-to-ceiling wardrobes are made from industrial pallets nailed on to a plywood frame and decorated with a stencil borrowed from a shipping company. "I love lying here looking at all the destinations – Sri Lanka, Russia, the Commission of Electrical Goods in Iraq," Ribbens says. "It looks more like a wall than a wardrobe." The single guest bed was from a Salvation Army hostel that closed down, and the blanket is vintage 50s from the same sale.

In the kitchen the distressed, painted wood of the cabinet doors was once a wall in a neighbour's garage. Ribbens let the size of the wood dictate the cupboards' shape, rather than the other way round. He made a plywood frame for the found wood, and cleaned it with soap and water. Uniform tones and neat lines stop the cabinets looking too messy, and the rest of the room is spare save for a wall display of kitsch religious icons found in flea markets.

Guardian

Planning laws leave war memorials at risk

Hundreds of war memorials are at risk of being lost or damaged because planning laws fail to cover their preservation, according to a report published today. Military memorials are also under threat from thieves who sell them for use as garden sculptures.

The report from the London Assembly calls for a full register of memorials in the capital to be developed over the next two years and for changes to the planning laws. It says that a system should be in operation that automatically alerts the authorities to the presence of a memorial or monument on land that is the subject of a planning proposal. The protection and preservation of memorials in London must become a key consideration in planning policies developed by individual boroughs, the report says.

Tony Arbour, an assembly member who led the investigation into the capital’s memorials, said: ”The thousands of war memorials in the capital, of all shapes and sizes, are a real and tangible reminder of Londoners who gave their todays for our tomorrows. To preserve London’s remaining memorials, planning processes must be changed to reflect the unique protection these aspects of our built environment require, and applied carefully by the mayor and the boroughs”.

There are an estimated 100,000 war memorials and monuments in the country, with 5,500 listed in London. The report says that they are under threat from neglect, permitted development, vandalism and theft, collapse and natural erosion and also because they are not protected as architectural landmarks in the same way as historic buildings.

It highlights how a memorial at St George’s church in Peckham, southeast London, had disappeared by 1993 after the building was closed in 1971 and became derelict. Others are broken into pieces, as happened to a memorial tablet at a bus station in Palmers Green that was rebuilt. Teak memorial panels at Old Paddington Town Hall were burnt when the drill hall was demolished and no suitable accommodation could be found for them.

The report warns that without a register of every memorial it is likely that their preservation will be overlooked in the planning process. “Appearance on a register would protect war memorials from development, and if this were accompanied by specific local planning policies requiring memorials to be retained in situ if possible or guidance for relocation if necessary, a high level of protection would be provided,” it says.

Times Online

Artist Jennifer Marsh's Wrapped Gas Station

New York, USA In this video interview, Jennifer Marsh explains the World Reclamation Art Project's mission to cover this New York gas station at the corner of Nottingham Rd and East Colvin St in order to bring attention to the world's oil dependence.

Jennifer Marsh has received fabric pieces from all over the world for the wrapping. This art installation was unveiled on May 5th and has succeeded in gaining attention and sparking debate over the world's oil dependence.

Costa Rican Airplane Hotel Takes Flight

If you have fantasies of living like the Swiss Family Robinson or even the characters in Lost, this rainforest resort near Quepos, Costa Rica may be just the ticket. Situated on the edge of the Manuel Antonio National Park, the Costa Verde Resort features an incredible hotel suite set inside a 1965 Boeing 727 airplane. In its former life the airplane transported globetrotters on South Africa Air and Avianca Airlines, and it now serves as a two bedroom suite perched on the edge of the rainforest overlooking the beach and ocean. The finished project is a stunning example of adaptive reuse.









inhabitat

Open your eyes to reuse

Nick Page founded Fe26 after studying sculpture at Bath Academy of Arts and later a masters degree at Manchester Metropolitan University. Nick currently works from his studio in central Manchester on exciting projects which are dedicated to reusing salvaged materials in innovative and interesting ways. Nick said, "Initially when I started out making sculpture, salvage was a practical and cheap source of materials. For instance for the larger carvings I would use storm or lightning felled trees - the land owners would generally be happy for me to take them for free to clear the space. It also enabled me to answer the question about the ethics of using such a large quantity of natural resource with a clear conscience. Where I needed steel, I would use car panels and things like that.

From those initially pragmatic reasons, I adopted the use of salvage on a more conscious basis. I remember seeing how quickly a whole valley near Bristol that had been designated for landfill filled up. It made me realise that we need to think before we discard something and consider whether it still has a useful life.

I think that the biggest benefit of reuse design is that every piece you see, is one (or more) less thing being put in a hole in the ground. The corallary to that is that it is potentially one less thing made in a sweatshop abroad and then shipped around the world. It's a simple way to reduce our carbon footprint.

Another reason for using salvaged materials is that they carry the marks of time and sometimes traces of the people that last worked or used them. Non-ferrous metals for instance often have a beautiful patina of greens and ochres due to oxidisation over time. It gives things a 'one off' value. However, if you need to manufacture in multiples, this becomes a problem. In that case, sourcing materials suitable for reuse can add greatly to cost.

Nowadays, I source my salvage from a variety of places. I do keep an eye on some of the salvage yards, usually looking for the things that are one short step away from the skip. A good example is decorative architectural cast iron. Often it cannot be repaired for use in its original purpose because of inherent weakness. However, it provides a great basis for a new object, especially when combined with other materials. The plant stands, table and candlesticks are an example of this.

Anywhere renovation work is going on is another good source. Copper boilers, timber and stonework can always be reworked into something useful. Copper is great for lighting because of the quality of light it gives. The warm quality of light used in mannerist paintings such as Caravaggio's was achieved using copper mirrors.

Other than that it's a question of keeping your eyes open and looking at things as they could be rather than what they are."

With so much scope to reuse materials it is interesting to question what Nick's method is for creating an object from start to finish and if the salvaged items dictate what he is going to make or if he starts with an idea and then sources materials for its purpose. "I suppose the answer is both" said Nick, "Sometimes I find some materials that look interesting and full of potential, but I may not be sure what exactly. Then I might come across something else a few months later and think - if I put that with the other, it'd make a great lamp, or table or whatever.

In other cases, the boiler lamps are a good example, I'll make one and then think copper boilers are readily available, so why not make a range of lamps?. The average boiler provides enough material for between three to five lamps. The domed top makes a good desk lamp and the main cylinder makes a great lampshade. Often they have a patina of verdi gris on the inside so I'll turn them inside out to make a feature of that.

The other thing that sometimes happens is that a client will come to me and say, 'I've got such and such. It's useless but I really like the look of it. Can you make it into something useful or decorative?'.

A variation on that is when you get a trade customer. They may be refitting a bar for instance which has a particular theme maybe nautical or industrial. They'll come to me for a range of items, designed using salvaged materials that relate to the theme.

The benefit I have is that I'm equipped in my studio to work in a wide range of methods. This includes welding, carving, woodturning, joinery and general manipulation of stuff."

Nick's work is obviously inspired by predecessors who reused materials such as Duchamp's vitrine turned into 'Fountain' and Picasso's bull's head made from a bicycle saddle and handlebars. His work takes objects which are destined for landfill and breaths new life into them. "That's all a bit grand" said Nick "most of the time I get inspirations from the objects themselves. That's particularly true with carving large pieces of wood. Things like the grain, pockets of rot damage, the initial shape, any damage all suggest the final form. Sometimes a particular setting will inspire something to be put in it. I find that particularly so with outdoor settings. I think though, that the most honest answer to that is that inspiration comes from keeping your eyes and mind open and being receptive to it when it comes."

Nick brought a few pieces to last years Salvo fair where he managed to sneak a bit of space on the In Situ stand. Visitors were very interested in his work and it has given him the encouragement to broaden his scope, he is currently trying to build up stock so he can spread his work further afield.

Nick has noticed that his cliental are a mixed bunch; "Obviously what I do appeals to a particular kind of person, it's hardly mass market appeal. Generally though, I think the people who buy my work are those who want something unique, that appreciate the wit of the out-of-context objects. I also think that my clientelle, first and foremost are interested in the piece itself. I think the salvage aspect is secondary, although most do appreciate the salvage element and it does add value.

I've also noticed there's a slight difference between commercial and private clients. Commercial clients - let's say they're kitting out a bar - will tend to go for the pieces where the provenence is more obvious. They go for the instant 'got it' response. A lamp made from a sewing machine with the box as a lampshade for instance. Private clients are more like to prefer the pieces where there's more manipulation of the source material - more 'craft' or 'design' perhaps.

I believe the customers have a responsibility to question the provenance and sustainability of what they buy, and be prepared to pay more. After all, it's what the customer demands and rejects that determines what is made and sold and in what way.

By the same token, producers and manufacturers need to find solutions to the problems of manufacture and also to devise new business models to make this work. Obviously some markets are going to change quicker than others. It's possible that with the current climate, it is emerging economies with less entrenched practices that will provide new models to make this work."


Above: Salvaged Victorian Gothic stairparts, the wooden steps and pots are from re-worked salvaged timber. Nick said, "They reminded me a bit of those Victorian 'ruin' follies that always seem to have greenery growing from between the stonework."

Fe26
Salvo Recraft site

Wine barrel recraft

Reclaimed item of the week

For 2008 'barrel art' initiative Glenfiddich whisky asked the london-based design consultancy Johnson Banks to interpret the length of time it takes for Glenfiddich single malt whisky to mature in barrels. Michael Johnson and his team decided to focus on the ‘jobs’ that each part of the barrel have to do over the different lengths of time the five different whiskies mature. the shortest length of time whisky is in a barrel is 12 years, the longest is 30.





Above: The whiskey barrel relates to 1987 - 'for 21 years we take a share', over the course of 21 years, nearly half a barrel of liquid will evaporate. legend has it that this is the ‘angel’s share’.



Above: The whiskey barrel relates to 1978 - 'I will wait for 11,000 nights - I will wait for 11,000 days', the whisky that takes longest to mature, the 30 years, is represented by the moon and the sun etched and charred onto the lid of a barrel.

Haute Nature Wine Barrel art

Designboom

Johnson Banks

Eiffel Tower staircase sells at Sotheby's

Above: An employee at Sotheby's Auction House stands next to a portion of the original staircase of the Eiffel Tower [pict. from Yahoo News]

Sotheby's, Paris

A part of the Eiffel Tower's iron spiral staircase has been sold at Sotheby's auction house in Paris. The 4.5m (14.7ft), 20-step section, which once linked the tower's second and third levels, it was one of 24 sections removed in 1983 to make room for new lifts it was expected to fetch up to 30,000 euros ($44,000; £21,000). It may also be the last piece available to the public, as the other 23 sections have already been bought by museums and collectors around the world. Auctioneer Remi Ader said the other 23 sections have been spread around the world, including one installed inside the Statue of Liberty, another of Gustave Eiffel's designs.

During its auction sale it fetched 553,000 euros (710,000 dollars), 10 times its estimated price. The staircase has been bought for a Dutch basketball team of the same name by entrepreneur Erik Kurvers, who is president of the club. Mr Kurvers said the price was worth it because of what the piece symbolises.


BBC News

Real life restorer

St Augustines, New Orleans USA

A 1800's statue of Jesus was removed from a New Orleans Church, with the intention of restoring the piece and then putting it back into the church in all of its glory. However, after a string of unfinished jobs and unpaid employees Peter Rubens a specialist in old master paintings ended up in prison.




Peter Rubens

Blue John

Chatsworth, Derbyshire UK


Above: A Blue John Vase in the state bedroom at Chatsworth House

Blue John Stone is a rare, semiprecious mineral found at only one location in the world - a hillside near Mam Tor, just outside Castleton. The name Blue John derives from the French Bleu Jaune meaning Blue Yellow, it is a form of fluorite and was discovered as miners were exploring the cave systems of Castleton for lead.

Blue John fluorite has been worked into ornaments since 1750. Within ten years there were sixteen mines working the area to supply thirty-odd local firms who fashioned it into inlays for fireplace and other ornaments for the stately homes of England. Old craftsman dried the Blue John stone and noticed that it changed colour to pink and red. It is not clear if this was discovered by accident as a result of a mistake in drying the stone. At 230°C the Blue John stone changes colour but at these temperatures, gases are produced which can sometimes explode and destroy the piece.

Nowadays, the caves of Castleton are magnificent show caves and are some of the most popular tourist attractions in Derbyshire. Of the four show caves only Treak Cliff and, to a lesser extent, Blue John have veins of Blue John Stone. Treak Cliff Cavern still mines about 500 kilograms of Blue John Stone each year. The veins of Blue John Stone are easy to see and many of the formations are well lit. Blue John Stone is a semiprecious stone and gives Castleton its nickname of 'Gem of the Peaks'.

London Design Festival

Above: 'Captivate Lula Dot' by Lucy Norman who is part of [RE]Design, she tries to promote reuse and resource awareness by involving its owner in the collection and creativity of waste, as the user can select different bottle tops and change the lighting colour and pattern.


Above: [RE]Design chair and table made from covered electrical wire.


Above: Part of the 100% Sustainable section at % Design showing a model of sustainable resources to try to promote debate.


Above: Walter Raes wearable & design art


Above: A collection of well designed and sustainable pieces from The Greenhaus

London Design Festival, Across London UK

London Design festival saw many exciting things happening across the city including 100% Design at Earls Court (18 - 21 September 2008) and Tent London in Brick Lane (18 - 21 September 2008).

100% Design has more than 450 exhibitors showcasing their latest ranges. Lighten Up, launched at this year's 100% Design London, its an innovative sustainable lighting exhibition from [re]design. It looks beyond the bulb to explore what lighter lighting could mean, from energy and material use to make greener living aspirational and achievable. [re]design is a social enterprise that propagates sustainable actions through design, and promotes products that are genuinely good, attractive and sustainable innovative designs. Also, at the show was Stephen Johnson who exhibited at this years Salvo fair his work incorporates ornamental kitsch pieces from the home.

Within the show there is a specialist section called 100% Sustainable that looks at Models of Sustainable Design. The team have created a miniaturised world presented as a ‘00 scale’ model that asks questions of the viewer and deliberately sets us scenarios, which raise discussion and debate that can be discussed in the many workshops in the lecture theater.

Tent London takes place in the Truman Brewery, a vast reclaimed industrial site in Brick Lane, showing art and architecture, vintage and contemporary design by emerging and established designers from around the world. The interesting stand of Walter Raes shows, "Wearable design art made from household and industrial cast-offs, retrieved from society's discarded and often everyday objects. I transform ironing boards into sheath-style dresses and mop heads into coats," said Walter Raes. Also showcasing at the event was The Greenhaus, who create beautiful, practical products for the home whilst still embracing the key principles of sustainability, including the re-use and recycling of materials and low energy footprint both from manufacture and usage.

Following on from the success of Circa's last year, Tent has a section dedicated to vintage design. It has high quality vintage pieces from a selection of dealers for both the public and trade to buy.


100% Design

Tent London

Walter Raes

[RE]Design

The Greenhaus

Heritage Skills exhibition

Above: "An example of work from an end of year degree show graduate This gives an example of what I shall hope to offer at the Cell Block, once the center is converted." said Debbie Robins of Skills Heritage in Portsmouth


Now and Then - an art exhibition of traditional skills with a contemporary twist. Boathouse 4, Portsmouth Historic Dockyard. PO1 3LJ, August 16th - 31st 10am-5.30pm including weekends

The idea and development of the project has been brought about by the acknowledged shortage of skilled practitioners within the building restoration industry, especially the South East. The skills are primarily concerned with building interiors and consist of;

Scagliola-not taught anywhere outside the industry
Gilding.Water, oil and verre eglomisé.
Mould making/decorative plasterwork
Architectural carving
Trompe l’oeil.paint effects/sable brush work
Wood graining/marbling/paper marquetry
Hand blocked wallpaper (To be reinstated)
Architectural/conservation/restoration lectures

Debbie Robins of skills heritage in Portsmouth said "The exhibition will have demonstrations by skilled practitioners and examples of work and is free. The whole thing is being run by volunteers who feel so passionate about the need to nurture and indeed save these fantastic skills."


Skills Heritage in Portsmouth

Colin Wilson's monkey saga ends quietly

Golding Young Auctioneers, Grantham

The final chapter in the story of 'The Colin Wilson Monkeys' ended quietly on July 30 when they sold at auction for an unspectacular £25,000.

The late Lincolnshire dealer Colin Wilson dedicated over ten years to research and champion the authenticity of two small bronze monkeys that he bought at Essex saleroom Sworders in the 1990s for a few hundred pounds.Mr Wilson believed they were from Giambologna's fountain of Samson and a Philistine erected in Florence c.1569 and later moved to the gardens of Aranjuez, south of Madrid.

Grantham auctioneer Colin Young championed the course of the monkeys and before opening the bidding on July 30, he stressed that he was selling simply 'a bronze monkey' without reserve. Bidding for the first monkey concluded quickly at £12,500, with the successful commission bidder choosing to take its pair at the same price.

Mr Young concluded the sale with the poignant words "The price does not equate to the cost" - a reference to the enormous time and energy Colin Wilson had expended in his attempt to prove he had discovered a masterpiece.

Golding Young

Beyond Limits

Sotheby's, 'Beyond limits' at Chatsworth House

Beyond Limits: A Selling Exhibition of Modern and Contemporary Sculpture Sotheby's returns to Chatsworth this summer with Beyond Limits, Sotheby's annual selling exhibition of modern and contemporary sculpture. Following the phenomenal success of last year's exhibition, Beyond Limits will once again showcase works from a variety of cutting edge contemporary artists, as well as works from established modern masters.

Sothebys 'Beyond Limits'