Brighton Festival

All this week I've been watching as Brighton's Clocktower gets shrouded in mens shirts. To begin with I wasn't convinced! However as it neared completion, I started to see the graduation of colours from dark to light, with some sections depicting seascapes.

Then I poped into Fabrica to see The Blue Route, and saw this incredible instalation, now I understand what's going on. Kaarina Kaikkonen, the artist, has been commissioned as part of Brighton Festival 2013 to create these artworks. The installations are assembled from second-hand shirts, donated by Brighton & Hove residents, which will in turn be donated to Oxfam when the exhibition finishes.

  Kaarina uses simple everyday objects to create large scale installations that articulate the architectural or open spaces in which her work is sited - 'A shirt is the closest to the heart, so that is why I use shirts. The person is there'. Well I think this is magical!

Light Show at The Hayward

I visited the Light Show at the Hayward Gallery yesterday. It's not the sort of show that I would have put at the top of my to do list, although I had seen the good reviews. But a friend of mine suggested it, so off we went. There are too many installations that I could rave about, so I'm just going to concentrate on Carlos Cruz Diez's Chromasaturation. 

Here's an explanation -“The Chromosaturation is an artificial environment composed of three color chambers, one red, one green and one blue that immerse the visitor in a completely monochrome situation. This experience creates disturbances in the retina, accustomed to receive wide range of colors simultaneously. The Chromosaturation can act as a trigger, activating in the viewer the notion of color as a material or physical situation, going into space without the aid of any form or even without any support, regardless of cultural beliefs”

It's almost impossible to describe the effect the coloured light has on your visual perception, as you move from one chamber to the next. It so disturbs the retina that at one stage we thought we were devoid of colour, visible in sepia or almost black and white. Quite extraordinary, disturbing and breath-taking all at once. Brilliant!

City of Coventry Health Centre - Award winner!

 Last week City of Coventry Health Centre won the Building Better Healthcare "Clinicians Choice" award. This is fabulous recognition for a project I was involved with, and for the team at Coventry Care Partnership and architect Cressida Toon of Sonnemann Toon Architects.

The Brass palette for the 2nd Floor - Dentistry, Physiotherapy and Podiatry

Dr Roy MacGregor led the judging panel who selected City of Coventry Health Centre from 220 entries. Dr MacGregor was the driving force behind the acclaimed Kentish Town Health Centre development, so I was really pleased when he mentioned the use of colour in his decision.

The Copper palette for the 3rd Floor - Sexual Health

The colour palette I developed for the centre was inspired by Coventry's industrial heritage. We focused on a different metal for each floor and used this starting point to create palettes for the interior design scheme and the Arts - the murals shown here are digital artworks by Kelly MacPhee who won a competition we set with Coventry University.

The Bronze palette for the 1st Floor - GP Services

What I'm really pleased about with this scheme was everyones willingness to work with the colour palettes to make this building a very special health centre. As you can see from the photos we even managed to get the colour to work from the inside out and the outside in.

WAN Case Study

City of Coventry Health Centre under construction

One of my on-going projects, City of Coventry Health Centre, is nearing completion. My input as Colour Consultant and Arts Coordinator has been the focus of a World Architecture News Case Study, which is very exciting. You can read the article here -WAN press article

Coventry City Centre Health Facility - Digital Artwork Project

The main palette

One of my current work projects, is as colour consultant and arts coordinator for the new City Centre Health Facility in Coventry. Working with the architect Cressida Toon's vision, I have developed a colour palette based on Coventry's urban landscape, it's ever changing society and industrial heritage. This main palette is a mix of brick, slate, lead and copper in different states of erosion.Further subsidiary palettes have been developed for each floor, each based on a metal: Iron, Bronze, Brass, Copper and Steel. These palettes are for wayfinding, interior design and as inspiration for the artworks.

Third Floor - Copper, by Kelly MacPhee

As part of the arts programme, I set up a competition with Coventry University to design digital artworks for each floor of the centre; these large scale artworks are to be digitally printed onto wallcoverings and positioned to aid orientation around the building. Kelly MacPhee's designs were selected for all floors, her brilliant use of the colour palettes and the metallic themes, produced beautiful images that work from a distance and close up. I can't wait for the artworks to be installed!

First Floor - Bronze, by Kelly MacPhee

   

Brighton Artists Open Houses

I visited some of the Open Houses at the weekend and bought this beautiful delicate print from Monica Macdonald Ralph; Monica's work can be seen at the garage at 51 Withdean Crescent.

I'm fascinated by print at the moment and also visited the Bip Workshop in Arundel Mews, where I found these lovely prints by Jean Farrer. The Artists Open Houses are open next weekend too.

Maria Rivans

I've mentioned the work of Maria Rivans before, I love the detail and the mixing up of images. So it's great that some of her work is now available as greetings cards from the card company Pearl and Black   

Wet Weekend in Littlehampton

Wonderfully coloured beach huts

I went to Littlehampton for the weekend to see the now legendary East and West Beach Cafe's  - despite the dismal weather, I'm realy glad I went....

West Beach Cafe

First stop the West Beach Cafe for a coffee - it may be miserable outside but we were tucked up in this modern version of the beach cafe. Designed by Asif Khan the cafe is usually photographed with the front windows swung open, but as a cafe it works just as well in bad weather. Brilliantly functional design.

East Beach Cafe

Later on we visited the now iconic East Beach Cafe for some wonderful food. The building is an astonishing object, so tactile inside and out, it is designed by Thomas Heatherwick and crosses over from architecture to sculpture.

If you visit Littlehampton do take a walk down the promenade - whatever the weather - because there is also the brilliant 'Britain's Longest Bench'.... 

The bench is 324mts long and meanders up and around avoiding bins and lamposts and dipping into the ground to allow access to the promenade.

Designed by Studio Weave the bench loops into two steel shelters at either end, where it twists into a 3d graffiti type structure, that can be climbed on. A great example of functional art, this project was made possible by CABE's Sea Change Programme and a donation from Gordon Roddick in tribute to his wife Anita Roddick, the Body Shop founder. Unfortunately the Sea Change Programme will be wound up by the current government.

One of the shelters from the beach

Exhibition - Unravelling The Manor House

I visited the fabulous Unravelling the Manor House exhibition at Preston Manor. The ehibition comprised of instalations by the Unravelled group of artists who work with craft in extreme, alternative and conceptual ways. All the artists work was specifically developed in response to the house.

Above is a beautiful box tableaux by Maria Rivans who focused on the fascinating life and relationship of the last couple to live at the house - Ellen and Charles Thomas Stanford.

This screen by Emma Molony is of paper and wood with projected stop motion silhouette figures of Edwardian servants. The servants are going about their daily tasks. To relieve them of the repetitiveness of their work, Emma has dropped in mischievous elements, giving them more interesting things to do - stealing a strawberry, trying the soup.   

All of the pieces exhibited were unexpected and quite beautiful - they bought the Manor alive.

Quilts at The V & A

Gorgeous exhibition of quilts including an example by Natasha Kerr - I love her work! The picture shows a commemorative panel by Natasha, commissioned by the V and A shop to celebrate the exhibition.