Reflect

Dion Lee's Vein Light Reflective Fringe Dress. Not only do I admire the workmanship and design, but the portrayal of his designs through photos is utterly powerful.

It is when fashion becomes more than that and bleeds into the creative context. Here, architecture and fashion models co-create this striking image.

For more check out Dion Lee's website, which is full of amazing short films of his shows.

Wine

What is the role of wine in art? Alice, budding wine connoisseur shows a way art is playing a part in the wine market.

Alice Through The Wine-Glass: Wine and art: I’ve always thought that wine was a form of art. You can geek out all you like conducting laboratory experiments but in the ...

Curtain

Christo's sketch of Valley Curtain in Colorado. So artificial, as is his other works but why does it reinforce the sublime so well?

Absence

Far from leaving this post empty as the title might suggest (I am not quite that avant-garde), I'll leave a link to a brilliant article I just read:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/culture/2012/jun/10/ten-best-invisible-artworks-hayward?CMP=twt_gu

I couldn't have put it better myself. 10 art works that are 'invisible", some take on humour, others, a stark seriousness. After reading about each one, each so unique in its approach of the theme, I see how they have influenced others and their art on that which is not present. Do they remind you of something else despite the absence? Enjoy!

Kudos to @YolundaHickman, an artist herself, for retweeting it over my way.

Fading

Modernism, the fading age of architecture. Now the white masses echo the late days of the classical monuments. The purity of the white gets grubby, the stucco may leak, crack and eventually the whiteness fades from even memory.

In Paris, in the Jasmin area, I visited the Maison la Roche and to my surprise it had become a shrine for itself. Or perhaps for Le Corbusier... you can't be sure. Devout architecture students linger, drawing spaces. Do not touch the walls, the attendant said. The fear is soiling the white.

In the Auckland Architecture School library, photos of modernist inspired buildings hang above the glowing computer monitors. These have faded also and the images are barely discernable. The architecture has become the negative space amongst the sepia tones that remain. The 'Lost Property' exhibition tried to bring these (often neglected) relics of architectural history back into the limelight, of an era past.

One of the white card models made for the exhibition.

As the Modernist architecture reaches its official lifetime (around 50 years? Should be more?), where have they gone? Are they being preserved or merely used until the end? Or forgotten?

Revival

I've been away from the blog exactly one month now. Having been busy with a stressful crit period (equivalent of an architecture exam/presentation), I've had little time to put down the X-factor creative things that I see all around me.

I did, however, spare the time to show around Melbourne Architours' Esther Sugihto around a few spots around the University of Auckland. We walked up the hill to the University of Auckland campus, seeing the Clocktower, Old Choral Hall and terminating at the New Brutalist Architecture School from the 70s.

It was interesting talking about the unseen in the city - the historical landscape of the CBD area (most of it being recliamed land and the river Horotiu) and how the Maori perceive the land. In my opinion, as a tour guide and representative of the city, it is always beneficial to show visitors the extra layers of context that they can't gather for themselves.

Have a read of Esther's own review of her trip around the North Island. I am also happy to show any visitors with an interest in architecture around the city, just tweet me.