Category: visual

Paul Allen’s Science Fiction Museum in Seattle is getting close to opening. “Despite some forward-looking, hopeful exhibits, like “SETI Fiction and Fact,” which will explore the Paul Allen–funded effort to receive communications from actual ETs, SFM will essentially be, like any museum, retrospective. It will celebrate a past when geniuses could envision happier futures and it will chronicle sci-fi’s evolution into negativity, including the bleakness expressed in Planet of the Apes (the costume of Dr. Zaius will be on display).”

It was the sweltering summer of 1951 when artist Charles Comfort spent 58 days creating a 20-meter mural on the back wall of a Toronto Dominion Bank branch in Vancouver. The resulting artwork stayed in place for half a century, and became known as one of British Columbia’s most important works of public art. “When the bank branch closed in 2002 and the space was taken over by a pharmacy, the bank was determined to find a way for it to stay in the province. It wasn’t such an easy task. The size of the mural was certainly an issue. And the restoration needed to remove layers of tobacco smoke and grime was extensive. More troubling, however, was the controversial history of Comfort’s murals in Vancouver.”

Eleven Colorado high schools are taking part in “Design and Build 2004,” an annual program sponsored by the Denver-based Museum of Outdoor Arts which is designed to give students a chance to experience firsthand the challenges of designing, building, and installing a major piece of public art. The students create “technical drawings, topographical maps and conceptual statements” of their proposed installations, then consult with the museum on feasibility, cost, and other minutiae. Finally, their fully constructed works are mounted at various high-profile sites throughout the Denver metro, with all the attendant fanfare of a “professional” installation.

Are there lessons to be learned about the WTC Ground Zero project from Daniel Libeskind’s Jewish Museum in Berlin? Michael Kimmelman observes that: “in Berlin, as at ground zero, the architecture was chosen before a decision was made about how to fill the building. The balance between form and content has been a vexing issue. Neither the Jewish Museum nor ground zero is immune to box office pressure. Both dubiously equate populism with civic duty.”

Denver’s Museum of Contemporary Art has chosen a rising star over established names to design its new building. “A year after revealing tentative plans to build its first permanent home, the 8-year- old institution announced Monday its choice of London architect David Adjaye from among six international finalists to oversee the design.”

A competition asks planners to imagine what Chicago’s lakefront park ought to be in the 21st Century. “The thesis is simple but profound: We don’t live the way people did 100 years ago. Our parks should be designed accordingly.”

Grave robbers in Peru tried to steal a 1000-year-old mural, but destroyed it in the process. “They probably used picks or wooden poles in a futile effort to steal the mural — a black, yellow and white dragon in sculpted relief on a painted red background — but only succeeded in destroying it.”

Historically, wars have influenced the architecture of their times. And is the current war finding its way into our buildings? “It is fascinating to see these concerns translated into architectural styles: unselfconsciously, as in the Cambridge Crown Court; and flamboyantly, like the mock castles built at the time of the Napoleonic wars, or the concrete bunkers built during the cold war.”

The Brooklyn Museum unveils a $63 million renovation this week. But it’s also unveiling a new focus. “It has all but abandoned efforts to lure visitors from Manhattan and is now, with the help of an image consultant, concentrating almost exclusively on its own backyard — the 2.5 million residents of Brooklyn.”

“Around 800 archaeological sites, including forts, carved crosses, standing stones and cairns, could be dropped from Historic Scotland’s official schedule. Critics said the plan was a ‘betrayal of Scotland’s heritage’, which would allow developers to build on protected sites. The change follows a decision to restrict protection to sites deemed of ‘cultural significance’ and ‘spiritual value’.”