With a Twist - Starfield Library

The spectacular book display at Starfield Library, set within the open crossroads of COEX Mall, Seoul is pushing boundaries, physically and metaphysically.  It exerts challenges on many fronts.  The intimacy of library in sharp collision with shopping experiences may open possibilities.  Legal issues aside, the bait played out between greed and self-esteem for those tempted to take books home is tantalizing.

Inspired by this setup, this video of looking up and sideway may disorientate.  Yet, it is the shifting of perspectives that makes room for new ways of seeing.

 

Music: Trap Drum by Poor Artistt

 

Art across the street

 

Located at the corner of the busy blvd. de Maisonneuve Ouest and rue Mackay is Di-Octo II by Anthony Howe.  This 8m high kinetic sculpture was commissioned for the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio and subsequently donated to Concordia University for Canada’s 150^th and Montreal’s 375^th anniversaries.  

The mesmerizing motions of the metal parts, amidst the heavy traffic, are a gem to ponder in arguably the most artistic city in Canada.  And to me, art is not something an individual or a people are born with, but the will to learn and exercise.

Hope to show more on my recent trip to Montreal in the near future.

Parallels of Longing

Parallels of Longing

2026

Pigmented cement, natural moss, steel balls and rods, acrylic, spray paints

Walls define space.  Doors and windows question it. 

These apertures offer passage, light and air; yet they also cultivate expectation, distance and secrecy.  They invite our gaze as readily as they reject it.  Between what is revealed and what is withheld lies a web of psychological nuances. 

This work attempts to deconstruct and magnify their essence through physical and incorporeal means.  Beyond the nothingness they frame, it is the closure of these apertures that speaks with different agendas.  The two siblings, rivalrous at times, reflect the states of mind intrinsic within us.

Perhaps doors and windows operate more than mere incidental components of a building.  They could be the unwitting representations of our inner selves, cast into brick and mortar.

Note:  This work took me quite a while, 6 months in fact, to work out from concept to realization.  There was struggle on addressing the departure from less figurative expressions without leaving the audience among clouds.  There are also issues on layering of visuals, materials use and technicalities, among all other difficulties.  The most important consideration is sticking my gun to a strong concept.  Hope I have done just enough of the above.

 

Artwork on ‘Doors and Windows’

 This is an update on the piece and the road to completion is near.  I’d like to share the process of ideas generation, material studies, casting techniques and volume calculations.

In the pipeline and equally important, thoughts on the artwork write-up and the title are being consolidated.  Yes, it deserves a better name than ‘Doors and Windows’, I guess. 

12 Fun Facts on Unité d’Habitation, Marseille, France

 

1. ‘I must be free of all building regulations in force.’  The architect – Le Corbusier accepted the project with this condition for the Minister of Reconstruction after WWII.

2. It was known by the locals in the 1950’s as The Loony Bin – La Maison du Fada. The title was further endorsed by the then president of the medical academy, himself a psychiatrist.

3. The Charter of Housing after the war in France required the residents of the Unité be taught on the ‘know-how of dwelling’ – savoir habiter.  We don’t practice this anymore with social housing, do we?

4. The architect compared the Marseille Block as ‘the wine-bin’ and the 337 apartment units as wine bottles.  These bottles in Corb’s terms ‘may contain Champagne, Beaune or just vin ordinaire, but the one we are talking about contains invariably a family.’  Very French – architecture and wine tasting.

5. Unité was designed to be the first block of housing experiment covering a plot of 3.5 hectares.  Multiple towers, separated among one another 300m apart in a park setting is what the other name ‘La Villa Radieuse’ – Green Town was originated.

6. The raw concrete look – béton brut was achieved with the use of sand and rock from Etole massif, the mountain range north of the city.  The architect wanted the surfaces to resemble the rugged terrains there.  Sure, they do.  One can also say that this might be a pioneering green architecture of modern era.

7. Most critics complain on the width and height (3.66x2.26m) of most residential units without mentioning a double height of 4.8m at the living rooms.  To be fair, one can hardly find social housing of this generous dimension even now!

8. A resident used to run a cinema of 40 seats exclusively for other residents.  There is no information on where this ‘cinema’ was located.  At present, live performances and other arts activities are carried out from time to time on the roof terrace and art gallery (once the gymnasium).

9. According to the residents, the sculptural ventilation shafts on the roof terrace occasionally produce humming sounds that visually echo with ferries travelling from Corsica and Algeria to the Marseilles harbour. 

10. The name of the restaurant at the Unité is Le Ventre de l’Architecte which pays homage to the film The Belly of the Architect by Peter Greenaway.  The location of this restaurant, on the internal street, is close to the centre of the housing block just as the belly button to the centre of a person.

11. When residents are asked what they like most of the building, the communal roof terrace sunset apéritif comes first, then the sunrise.  We should democratize all flat roofs now!

12. Private Delivery System: All apartments feature specially designed boxes on walls for residents to receive groceries from shops without opening their doors.  Residents with communal spirit use them to share magazines and foods among themselves.

This write-up follows my recent pilgrimage to the Unité and found that it really is a living monument slash apartment building.  The morning I went there was literally kicking with residents doing Pilates and riotous music on the roof terrace.

For more reading, there is an in-depth review of Le Corbusier on this blog:   https://artswise.blogspot.com/2015/11/

For my artworks: https://edwardtsui.ca