Category: visual

“As museumgoers, we’re used to looking at art, but a new project from filmmaker and artist Masashi Kawamura inverses the traditional relationship of viewer to artwork. For his blog What They See, Kawamura has taken photographs from the perspectives of famous artworks, inviting us into their visual fields. We see what they would see – if they could see.”

“Most days the underside of the Smith-9th Street subway bridge over the Gowanus Canal in Brooklyn is a tangle of ungainly gray beams, but this week it has been aglow in bold colors every night.”

“The virtual museum was designed to look just like a real one. The works hang on spare white walls, surrounded by ornate frames. An audio guide walks visitors through the halls. For Schneider, recreating the traditional museum environment was a chance to restore some dignity to these stolen works, which often just exist as thumbnail images on FBI and Interpol websites.”

“A new report shows 2014 was the ‘tallest year ever,’ with more skyscrapers constructed than in any previous year,” and 2015 is on track to outpace it.

“The filing claimed that Sotheby’s did not undertake the necessary research and analysis prior to the work’s sale.”

“Architecture for Humanity, a nonprofit design group that sought to repair the world with socially conscious construction in places like Kosovo, Haiti and hurricane-ravaged Mississippi, has abruptly closed its San Francisco headquarters and plans to file for Chapter 7 bankruptcy protection.”

“The most withering criticism has come from the Japanese architect Arata Isozaki, who designed the Palau Sant Jordi used in the 1992 Barcelona Olympics. In a long open letter sent to the Japan Sports Council (JSC) in November, the 83-year-old said Hadid’s design looked like ‘a turtle waiting for Japan to sink so that it can swim away.'”

Steven Holl Architects “has re-imagined the campus’ north side as a pedestrian-friendly cultural hub with a lively landscape, two distinctive new buildings, ample underground parking and smooth circulation patterns for vehicles and people.”

And he’s named the project after J.M.W. Turner, whom he sees as a forerunner in the endeavor.

“Standing in the doorway, you’re drawn to the majestic, cavernous space behind the altar. Rows of columns support a lofty, gilded ceiling that matches the decadently adorned arches above the pews. But it’s all a clever deception – the space behind the altar is less than 3 feet deep. The seemingly vast expanse is actually a painted wall.”