Dance by takeSomeCrime, via David John at You have been here sometime. Question: Is the relationship between the decor and the moves inversely proportional – the sketchier the room, the better the moves are? Or is the room just irrelevant? Is this decor Canadian, or is the Canadian location just incidental? Are these questions rhetorical if nobody answers them?
Not a rhetorical question. This is a hodgepodge sample, for sure, and spans decades, but all of it seems to partake of some form or other of adventurousness. It’s possible I’m projecting, and that my view of Australia is entirely filtered through my childhood fixation on that girl in National Geographic who crossed the outback on camels. But I doubt it. Above are from the National Archives of Australia appearing in the Heide Museum of Modern Art’s exhibit Modern Times: the untold story of modernism in Australia. Top: ‘A modernist vision of Australia: Grant and Mary Featherston’s wing sound chairs were a feature of the Australian Pavilion, designed by architect James Maccormick with exhibits selected by Robin Boyd, at Expo 67 in Montreal, 1967′ and ‘View of the elevated restaurant, Centenary Pool, Brisbane’ by James Birrell. Most images below are from desire to inspire, the half-Australian blog. House directly below is the Wheatsheaf House. House in woods below by Drew Heath; room with screen, photo by Lucas Allen; geometric bedroom by Greg Natale; provenance of last 3 photos is lost, please advise; last photo is room by Marion Hall Best, considered the mother of modern Australian interior design.
When your decor is a romantic deal-breaker: a female visitor fled upon seeing this NYC lawyer’s sheets. My sister, by the way, had those exact sheets. When she was 12. Via the NYT where there’s also a really gratifying condemnation of Klimt posters.
The Parker Hotel as photographed by Chimay Bleue, who has produced one of my favourite collections of photos of modernist architecture on Flickr. I’ll do a series of posts using his photos if he will let me. Look at the perforated screen wall outside – why don’t we see these screens around my part of the world? Because no one wants to pressure wash the moss off? Fantastic lobby, with an indoor version of a midcentury modern screen.
I spent hours as a kid making marble runs, using anything that was lying around my dad’s tool area. I’d usually start with a big chunk of solid wood (usually cedar, left over from deck-building) and make the marble wind around it in a spiral, down tracks made of elastic bands stretched between two pairs of nails, thin slats with grooves whittled out, leftover copper plumbing pipe etc. I was the artsy type l so I was trying for an aesthetic effect but that’s not necessary! My dad’s friends would play with the runs when they came over, so I know they’re not just for kids. On a whim I searched Flickr a few days ago and found many marble runs, none of which resembled mine at all, but all of which are amazing. This is only a tiny fraction of what I found. They’re not all DIY – there are some out there that span several floors and are permanently installed in museums, and there are many plastic commercial models – but they’re all interesting. Look at this ingenious one hipnerd made for his child. In memory of my childhood fixation, my sister recently bought me a beautiful, traditional woodblock marble run set, and naturalmom on Flickr has the same one! (Below.) Below that is a slightly less safe marble run made from glass tube, but it’s stunning. Click on the photos to go to their Flickr pages for more information. Thanks to all the photographers for designating these Creative Commons. If you’re searching, also try “marble roll” as a search term.
Via OWI – Office for Word and Image. Photo: Vercruysse Frederik
