portrait of the quiet sitting room. pt 57
...
two circles, nine circles, & one circle.
aka
a painting, a cabinet, and a sconce.









"Luminous circles evoke eyes, as they are transformed into gray and brown scale color wheels, oceanic whirls, pentagons, and stars." via here


Portrait of the quiet sitting room. pt 57
...
two circles, nine circles, & one circle.
aka
a painting, a cabinet, and a sconce.


images:
1. Garth Weiser, c/o Casey Kaplan Gallery
2. Carlo Colombo, 2004, Zanotta Italia
3. Rewire Custom Sconce, Los Angeles. a lunar perfection.












----------------------------

portrait of the "modern" office
the essentials: lighting, desk, and a chair.
















































portrait of an office
the essentials: lighting, desk, and a chair.


1. Michael Anastassiades, via the fantastic MATTER. NY. gold plated brass, silken wire
2. Jean Royere, 1948 desk.
3. India Mahdavi chair, her designs are in a range all her own. Vibrating on their own.






more information on Jean Royere's desk:

"Jean Royère was a self-taught designer who began working on interiors in 1931. By the 1940s he was achieving major international success, particularly in the Middle East. Following the opening of his first gallery in Paris in 1942, he opened branch offices in Cairo in 1946 and in Beirut in 1947. Royère designed this desk for his own study in 1948, at a time when his practice was flourishing.

The lattice that forms the outer frame of the desk is a signature component in much of Royère's furniture. One of his most recognisable designs was the 'Eiffel Tower' pattern, a black lattice with gold balls at the intersections, which was used for items ranging from wall lamps to tables. He also designed wooden and rattan pieces using lattice patterns, and a range of furniture entitled Croisillons - 'Lattices' - incorporating metal lattices painted in bright colours."





taken from V of A museum Collection.
spend a day there, your mind will thank you.












-------------------------

YHBHS interview

BRENDAN RAVENHILL
"When designing I seek to strike the perfect balance between form and function as well as materials and manufacturing methods. It was during my childhood years in Cote'd'Voire and summers in coastal Maine, that I fell in love with the functional beauty of working tools and wooden boats."

Last week, I sat down with Brendan Ravenhill at a downtown Los Angeles cafe to talk about his designs, the concept for the new Osteria La Buca , and his current project, the "Cord Lamp." Glenn Lawson of LAWSON AND FENNING first told me about his work months ago, and then I recently saw it posted on Andy's REFERENCE LIBRARY, and REMODELISTA . I'm super thrilled that he took the time to be interviewed for YHBHS. I fell instantly in love with the new CORD LAMP, and I immediately placed an order for myself, (how could I possibly resist?)

--------------------


Your design philosophy?
I draw my greatest inspiration from tools, barns and boats - buildings and objects that strike that careful balance between form and function, using the materials efficiently and economically. When designing I set out to fully understand the manufacturing process I intend to use as well as the physical properties of the materials, and then create objects that possess an honesty of material and form.













Particular materials you are working with at the moment?
I predominantly work in metal and wood because of their timelessness and my familiarity with them. Recently though I've been working on a series of lights, exploring the properties of glass and plastic which I've greatly enjoyed. I'm also working on a series of tables using cast aluminum components which I'm very excited about.

CORD LAMP

Hand Cast Plastic, Steel, Wood, Electrical Components, 10' Cloth Cord.

What is the idea behind the cord lamp? The problem, and solution?
The Cord Lamp grew out of a long admiration for old wall-mounted arm lamps, with a particular fondness for Jean Prouve's Swing Jib Arm Lamp. In designing my own version of a wall mounted lamp, economy of material and cost were driving forces, but so was a desire to put a new twist on the archetype. What resulted is an extremely simple lamp in its construction, but one that uses its various parts to their fullest - the cloth covered cord of the lamp not only serves as a tension element that supports the pivoting steel arm, but also hides the screws in the mounting bracket. The simple construction of the Cord Lamp also allows it to come apart and pack neatly into a standard poster tube.





-------------------




You and your wife recently moved from the East Coast to Echo Park. Pros/Cons? Anything you miss about NY and the East Coast? I miss my network of friends and designers out east, as well as the pace and hustle of that coast. I've begun to meet some people in the LA design community, but have yet to make many connections. I will say though that in my year out here in L.A. I've fallen in love with the manufacturing capabilities of this city. The light industry that exists in L.A. is truly amazing, and from a design and production perspective this place puts New York to shame.


With a background in fine arts in sculpture, and another degree from RISD in Industrial Design, is there a correlation in your thought process between fine art & utilitarian design?
Both my art and my design work seek to answer similar questions of material, form and craft, but whereas in my art the function is solely to evoke an emotional response, my design work aims to do that while also being economical and functional.

Osteria La Buca Bar
Zinc, Barn Board, Walnut(purse hooks).

LA BUCA Chair
18"x 24"x 30", Steel, Pine, Walnut(feet).

Your recent project for Osteria La Buca. Explain the redesign of the space. The new materials you brought into the space, and your concept? The chairs, the stools?

My work at Osteria La Buca has from the beginning grown out of a conversation with the owner, Graham Snyder. We agreed that what we were trying to achieve was a space that reflected the care and attention that is put into the food. After analyzing how the space functioned, we arrived at a concept that would leave the majority of the structure intact but allow for the expansion into a neighboring, storefront which will eventually become the new entrance / waiting bar of the restaurant.

Though the structure largely remains the same, we have begun to change the material palette away from things that were chosen because they were traditionally "Italian" to materials and fixtures that we felt possessed an inherent honesty. Right now the bar at Osteria La Buca is the where the majority of the new changes can be seen.

We used local craftsmen to fabricate custom steel and pine stools, as well as build out a simple and elegant zinc bar, which over time will accumulate a patina of stains and scratches. We're using materials like reclaimed barn wood and zinc because of their ability to develop that kind of rich patina with use. Anticipated wear drives a lot of my design decisions, but so do comfort and cost considerations. For example, I avoided using upholstery on the stools in order to keep costs down but took time to create a contoured seat and back, which surprises you with its comfort.












The facade of Osteria La Buca was also sandblasted back to bare brick and I had the great pleasure of collaborating with my wife, Marjory Garrison, on new signage and lighting. The end result is a facade that seems to have always been that way.





--------------------





(thanks brendan for taking the time!)





Brendan Ravenhill is sold at:
Lawson-Fenning ‎ 1618 Silver Lake Blvd 7257 Beverly Blvd









----------------

light bulbs
Invention: electric light bulb in 1879

some photos of lightbulbs taken on a recent trip
to the Huntington Gardens, in Pasadena....


------



Edison was neither the first nor the only person trying to invent an incandescent electric lamp. Many inventors had tried and failed some were discouraged and went on to invent other devices. Among those inventors who made a step forward in understanding the eclectic light were Sir Humphrey Davy, Warren De la Rue, James Bowman Lindsay, James Prescott Joule, Frederick de Moleyns and Heinrich Göbel.





---------

"By the time of Edison's 1879 lamp invention, gas lighting was a mature, well-established industry. The gas infrastructure was in place, franchises had been granted, and manufacturing facilities for both gas and equipment were in profitable operation. Perhaps as important, people had grown accustomed to the idea of lighting with gas. Incandescent lamps make light by using electricity to heat a thin strip of material (called a filament) until it gets hot enough to glow. Many inventors had tried to perfect incandescent lamps to "sub-divide" electric light or make it smaller and weaker than it was in the existing electric arc lamps, which were too bright to be used for small spaces such as the rooms of a house."













--------------------------------

the
light
will
eventually
come
for
us.

"One day I read an interview with the Algerian film director, Abdel Kechiche. He stated that his cinema was the reflection of his life, his personal story. My father died when I was three and I experienced very strong emotions and a great deal of suffering. I don’t like to interpret these emotions, but I sometimes think that they gave rise to my sense of revolt in relation to bourgeois false appearances and social injustice. If I am interested in the world of poor people, it is because I enjoy being with people who have difficult lives, and who have stories to tell. My life involves thinking about my photography work every day; it is about interpreting other people’s thoughts, expressing my ideas, having experiences and understanding how to do things. I can not imagine myself separately from my work.

What is important?
What makes me get out of bed every morning?
What attaches me to this place?
How can I continue to evolve?
These are the questions I ask in this work and for me the answer lies in the feelings one has for others, in the love for one’s family.

These are the basic, essential things."

- Andre Cepada

the
light
will
eventually
come
for
us.


1 and 2. Andre Cepada... here....
3. Andrew Moore.













-----------------------------

L I G H T

new work: Heather Carson
light/ALBERS "

at ACE Gallery,
Los Angeles

“I have sought to createlight as a visceral, active presence that has its own logic and structure, co-existing with the action – often in conflict – not there simply to better “see” what is happening onstage.”"

For Carson, each light piece is not a direct reference to an individual Albers painting but to the oeuvre at large. Albers carefully noted on the reverse side the type and shades of color that he used as a record of the works specific formal experiment. Mirroring the foregrounding of the electrical systems in her work, bringing the 'background' information forward rather than hiding it, each piece lists the colors of the fluorescent tubes in the title, i.e. light/ALBERS: Cool White/DESIGN 50/ADV850, using the manufacturers name for the color temperature of the tube. Albers himself used different types of fluorescent lighting in his studio (some that cast warm tones, and some cool tones) that allowed him to assess the color interactions in different lighting environments.














Historically, fluorescent works have tended to use the fixture itself as the carrier of the electrical wires. In the new Light Action wall sculptures on view, the heavy industrial aesthetic of her armatures and their joints may seem unfamiliar as part of an artwork. But Carson has developed a highly refined aesthetic over the years encompassing conduit and the use of indoor and outdoor electrical fittings.

The use of aluminum pipe and Speed-Rail enables her to place lights in space; adjacent to each other but maintaining their individual structural integrity.







new work: Heather Carson
light/ALBERS "

at ACE Gallery,
Los Angeles









-----------

L I G H T I N G

outer
space
and
semen.




























outer
space
and
semen.



1. Spencer Finch. Outer Space (25 Brightest Stars) 2008 Dimensions Variable, Custom Fluorescent fixtures, Tubes, Filters, Bulbs. 25 Fluorescent tubes and fixtures representing the temperature spectrum of the 25 brightest stars in the night sky.

2. Roger Hiorns. Untitled, 2006, Semen, lighting

"Spencer Finch carefully records the invisible world, while simultaneously striving to understand what might lie beyond it. Whether he is relying on his own powers of observation or using a colorimeter, a device that reads the average color and temperature of light, the artist employs a scientific method to achieve poetic ends. . . .

Contrary to what one might expect, Finch's efforts toward accuracy- the precise measurements he takes under different conditions and at different times of day- resist, in the end, a definitive result or single empirical truth about his subject. Instead, his dogged method reinforces the fleeting, temporal nature of the observed world, illustrating his own version of a theory of relativity. In Finch's universe if you wait a few hours, the sun may very well change a leaden hue into gold. Like the ancient practitioners of the hermetic arts, who saw changes as the most fundamental truth of the universe, the artist doesn't always provide an answer in his investigations. For Finch art can do more; it can "ignite our capacity for wonder."

taken from here..

about Roger Hiorns

"This often difficult relationship between objects, their materials and industrial, man-made and natural processes and substances runs throughout Hiorns’s work, with past sculptures including detergent-filled ceramics slowly pumping out columns of white foam. He’s also made sculptures using perfume and his own semen. For his next trick, Hiorns will be combining huge ceramic filters used in air conditioners with biological matter from calves’ brains. ‘All these works relate in some way to hygiene and obsessive-compulsiveness and a fear of losing control of one’s personal structures – such as in the brain disease CJD,’ Hiorns explains, ‘so while they’re sculptural objects, they’re also an extension of psychological thought."

------------------

space
age
lights,
milan,
now.




























space
age
lights,
milan,
now...
via here..




----

We Care About You.

Andy
Coolquitt
at
Lisa
Cooley,
NY

second souffle
2010

Andy Coolquitt’s abstract, linear sculptures made of joined pipes, broom handles, discarded lighters, beer bottles, light bulbs, straws, and crayons, are minimalist, ordered rearrangements of the raw world from which their components are sourced. Human-scaled and oddly anthropomorphic, Coolquitt’s work relates to the body in scale and form. Many times the works are functional, but Coolquitt is more interested in their dysfunction and their tenuous relationship with practicality.

We Care About You includes significant new sculptures that plumb Coolquitt’s alchemical bricolage. attainable excellence #2 is a lanky rod of transformed pipes that leans against the wall. A u-shaped pipe at the bottom forms two feet, and four light bulbs create an illuminated halo. The sculpture has a refined DIY aesthetic that channels its titular optimism.

Coolquitt shows these discrete sculptures alongside non-art objects, reinvestigating a theme in his practice of immersive environments. Found objects hang from the ceiling and commune with the finished works. The former are not “ready-mades”, which would both steep them in art history and claim them as Coolquitt’s own. Instead, he calls them “somebody mades” because “another human designed and constructed them” Also included are “inbetween objects” which are in the process of becoming – or resisting becoming – resolved pieces.

The result juxtaposes what Coolquitt terms “three levels of the life of the object.” Among these ruminations on objecthood, Coolquitt revisits a work from 1991.Titled a nice soft place for meeting people…, a plush shelf at elbow height encourages viewers to lean, converse, and interact. This shared experience embodies the connections between both people and materials that define Coolquitt’s oeuvre.




go to Lisa Cooley
site here..





--------

Stephen Antonakos

look
for
the
light...

Stephen Antonakos

Incomplete Neon Square"
1977 Documenta 6,
Kassel, Germany


"He calls his art, "real things in real spaces," intending it to be seen without reference to anything outside the immediate visual and kinetic experience."

"Welcome"
1999-2006
Univ. of Burgundy,
Dijon, France

Stephen Antonakos

Antonakos's work with neon since 1960 has lent the medium new perceptual and formal meanings. His use of spare, complete and incomplete geometric forms has ranged from direct 3-dimensional interior installations to painted canvases, Walls, the well-known back-lit Panels with painted or gold-leafed surfaces, and the Rooms and Chapels. Throughout, he has conceived work in relation to its site — its scale, proportions, and character — and to the space that it shares with the viewer.

Since the late 1970s he has made large scale Public Works with the same concerns plus the inevitably broader engagement of space and auxiliary light outdoors. Colored pencil drawings on paper and vellum, often in series, have been an equally rich practice since the beginning. He has also made Packages, Artist's Books, and Reliefs of white wood and of silver.






--------

dream machine

this
weekend's
viewing..

Flicker, the documentary.

In 1960, poet, artist, and beatnik Brion Gysin invented the Dreammachine, a hypnotic light device with the power to induce hallucinations. The Dreammachine enthralled mystics and freethinkers everywhere, with William Burroughs claiming that it could, “storm the citadels of enlightenment.”

Nik Sheehan’s riveting documentary explores the life of Brion Gysin and his quest to transform human consciousness. With interviews from some of the counter-culture’s most eccentric icons- from Iggy Pop to singer Marianne Faithfull- FLicKeR is a fascinating exploration of the age-old search for the boundaries of reality.

----

"the
light
will
never
lie."

"the
light
must
never
fade."

do we still obsess
about the future
as a culture
or do you feel
that the future
has arrived?

generous public art installed.

the light will never lie.
the light must never fade.


1. ivan navarro, here!
2. crazy geometric tumblr.. here via (atelier) here!
3. burial, ghost hardware.... inspired by here and here...

Catherine Willis

Images from Catherine Willis' blog, here..
I was first introduced to her work by Ivan Terestchenko,
the incredible photographer.

.

Light candlestick
2009
by Catherine Willis.

LUSTRE BLANC
white plaster chandelier.2009.
Pièce unique.Collection CL. de B. France.

Catherine Willis
go here for more images.

home project #1
index cards and a light source.














































home project #1
index cards and a light source.

KEITH SONNIER

On 7 January 2010, Mary Boone Gallery will open at its Fifth Avenue location an
exhibition of sculptural neon works by KEITH SONNIER.
Referencing Sonnier’s investigations at the beginning of his career(the late 1960s) where
he employed cloth, neon light, screening, and visible electrical circuitry, the “Oldowan
Series” is a group of wall works that combine sexually charged and psychologically loaded
fabrics like gauze and satin with steel armatures. Enduring natural materials such as
wood and stone play off of the evanescent quality of neon light.
Oldowan is a term applied to the earliest manufactured stone tools in Africa, first used by
George Leakey to describe finds at Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania. The titles of individual
works in Sonnier’s series – Omo, Faya, Fora, Tulu – come from the designations of
various Paleolithic riverbed sites.

taken from press release here.

mary boone gallery.

the
season.
(lights)







































the season , (lights)


1. Felix Gonzalez-Torres, 1993, last light
2. Jeppe Hein, 2009, Hello? Shall I call you back?

















.

chandelier.

Pae White

an artist:
her chandeliers of light,
and her home.
(inspired by the ever amazing, manmakehome)

Casa Cuadrada.
Pae White's and Tom Marble's Los Angeles home.
see more images here.

Light Art
Pae White
chandelier
Edition of 4

go here for more info.

point of departure.

(james turrell)

you have been here sometime
has gone into the light (for awhile) to recharge.
(return date: undetermined..)


beginning new project...


feel free to contact me,
with correspondence at
mrechopark@yahoo.com



all the best,
david

"cross over children,
cross over children.
all are welcome
go into the light.
there is peace and serenity in the light."

"The astral plane, also called the astral world,
is a plane of existence postulated by classical, medieval,
oriental and esoteric philosophies and mystery religions.
It is the world of the planetary spheres, crossed by the soul in its astral body
on the way to being born and after death,
and generally said to be populated by angels, spirits or other immaterial beings.
In the late 19th and early 20th century the term
was popularised by Theosophy and neo-Rosicrucianism."

"The idea of astral travel is rooted in common worldwide religious accounts of the afterlife in which the consciousness' or soul's journey or "ascent" is described in such terms as "an...out-of body experience, wherein the spiritual traveler leaves the physical body and travels in his/her subtle body (or dream body or astral body) into ‘higher’ realms." It is therefore associated with near death experiences and is also frequently reported as spontaneously experienced in association with sleep and dreams, illness, surgical operations, drug experiences and forms of meditation. It is also sometimes cultivated for its own sake or may be believed to be a faculty derived from or necessary to some forms of spiritual practice.

It may involve "travel to higher realms" called astral planes but is commonly used of any sensation of being "out of the body" in the everyday world, even seeing ones body from outside or above. It may be reported in the form of an apparitional experience, a supposed encounter with a doppelganger, some living person also seen somewhere else at the same time."

the participants.
(point of departure)

1. close encounters remix, rozza 89
2. mariah robertson
3. ivan navarro
4. john mccracken
5. john foxx "he's a liquid"
6. andrei molodkin
7. alfred jaar
8. john foxx, metamatic