Hasta La Ideas

Photographs: Dave King

The new commission for the Big 4, Channel 4’s public art project that can be found outside the broadcaster’s Horseferry Road headquarters in London, has been unveiled. The latest iteration of the project sees artist Hannah Gourlay turn the giant Channel 4 logo into a living sculpture, which appears to breathe slowly in and out…

The Big 4 was originally constructed by FreeState (who continue to manage the platform) with Mike Smith Studio in 2007, to celebrate Channel 4’s 25th anniversary year. It consists of a 50-foot-high steel naked frame that can be customised with ‘skins’ designed by artists. Previous designs have been created by internationally renowned artists, including Nick Knight and Mark Titchner, but more recently the space has been given over to art and design students and graduates who can apply with ideas for dressing the logo.

Early sketch for the project

Gourlay graduated from the Fashion Design BA course at Kingston University in 2008, and has since worked as a multidisciplinary designer across fashion, product design, graphic design and illustration. The piece she created for the Big 4 breathes slowly in and out, at a similar pace to yogic breathing. “I wanted to create a brief moment of calm for passers-by and Channel 4 staff, a moment to pause for relaxation, reflection and renewal,” she says.

To create the installation, Gourlay and FreeState collaborated with structural engineers Atelier One and Architen Landrell, a tensile architecture specialist. Each section of the Big 4 has been wrapped in a fabric from Dartex Coatings Ltd, which is more commonly used for NHS bed mattresses but chosen here for its ability to stretch sufficiently and then revert to its natural shape. The breathing effect is created by electric fans, which draw in air from the outside. These are then turned off and the pre-tension of the fabric pushes the air out. At night, the 4 will be lit from within to give a golden glow.

“The Big 4 blends in with the glass and steel surroundings of the striking Channel 4 building and then it gently transmogrifies into playful balloon shapes, which reveal its fabric qualities,” continues Gourlay. “Working with Channel 4, FreeState, Atelier One and Architen and seeing the idea develop from my small, rubber-covered model, which I got my housemate to breathe in and out of, was so exciting! The process of having to comprehend the considerable technical and logistical challenges involved in making a 50ft structure ‘breathe’ has been invaluable.”

More info on the Big 4 can be found here, and on Hannah Gourlay’s work, here. Gourlay’s Big 4 piece will be on show until April 2012.

Cologne 2011: designer Mike Meiré invited visitors to a fetish club furnished with customised design classics at his Cologne factory during the imm cologne trade fair last week

At the end of a winding corridor visitors found chairs by designers including Marcel Breuer and Eileen Gray, draped with chains, straps, surveillance equipment and masks, intended to contrast with the trade fair’s sleek product presentations.

imm cologne took place 18-23 January. See all our coverage of the event here »

More furniture stories »

The information that follows is from Mike Meiré:

As part of the Passagen for the imm cologne furniture trade fair, Mike Meiré presents his installation “Back Room – adults only” in his Factory in Cologne Ehrenfeld.

The exhibition confronts us with the bewildering notion that furniture could have its own life, a dark alter-ego that questions the supposed certainties of marketing and the design staples of the good, the beautiful and the true which the trade fair presents year after year with great pomp and circumstance.

Mike Meiré transforms his Cologne Factory into a difficult to access back room which can only be reached along a labyrinthine corridor.

The spatial deconstruction of the corridor is an artistic coup which maximises the effect of the passage as a portal to a recessed, forbidden world.

With this mental preparation, one enters the “Back Room” which quickly reveals itself to be a dark room with clear sexual connotations and where icons of design history such as the Wassily Chair by Marcel Breuer or the Day Bed by Eileen Gray discard their bourgeois innocence and reservedness.

See also:

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Global Street Food by Mike Meiré	Jean Nouvel at Cologne 2011	Frederik Roijé at Cologne 2011

Three very different books to share, including the latest self-published zine by Kid Acne, and a collection of photographs of weddings that never happened by Judith Erwes. First up, though, is Beer: A Genuine Collection of Cans (Chronicle, £12.99)…

Beer is a 352 page, approximately A5 size book by Dan Becker and Lance Wilson which boasts over 500 photos of beer cans – all from the collection of one man, Josh Russo. The book runs through by brand alphabetically showcasing a huge variety of branding and packaging approaches from the 1930s to the present day, from the wonderfully simple black type on a white background cans shown in the spread below (all from the 80s) – through to more graphic and illustrative approaches…

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More info about the book can be found at chroniclebooks.com

Kid Acne‘s latest self-published zine, When The Smoke Clears, is 52 page, A5, book, litho printed in black on fuschia paper. The cover is screenprinted. 150 copies, each numbered and embossed by the artist are available at £10 from kidacne.com/

Imitation of Lives is a collection of photographs by Judith Erwes of fictitious weddings, created as a homage to wedding photos of the late 70s and early 80s. The 32 page book is 205mm square and has been designed and published by Duke Press and printed in a numbered edition of 500. £12 from dukepress.co.uk

See more of Erwes’ work at unpatient.com

We’re in awe of the chilling beauty of the “WWII Bunkers” photo series by English photography Jonathan Andrew, currently doing the rounds on photography blogs.

Jonathan’s treatment of these stunningly functionalist concrete structures—that appear as is from another world—are a poignant reminder of the scars left by war.

Check out Mr. Andrew’s site for more photo wizardry

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Cappuccio e ciambelle? La trovate qui.
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