11 posts from 2007

An assortment of household objects juxtaposed in various colours and scales, looking perhaps like a scene through an attic door, with discarded items crammed in. The painting was directly inspired by a site specific installation, 'Inhale/Exhale' which the artist produced at Manchester Art Gallery for their reopening in 2002.

"Hugely magnified images of these same objects were painted directly onto brightly coloured walls, and also onto an oversized canvas. 'Inhale (yellow)', as well as a further three works of similar composition, were produced in response, and act as a memory of the installation as well as highlighting the artist's practice of reworking previous imagery and compositions."

Martin's graphic work is as straight forward as it gets providing snapshots of the time we live in today.

His work has been described as the "new retro".
It has taken him decades to evolve this deceptively simple graphic style. 

His ability to reinvent generic objects, by playing with form, colour and scale enables his style to fit all manner of architectural and artistic brief.

From light bulbs to wine glasses Michael Craig Martin has realized a contemporary take on still life.

"My installations question the nature of picture making. Instead of looking at a painting, it feels like you are stepping inside it. All the images are sucked in onto the canvas and then exhaled on the wall opposite."

Michael Craig-Martin

This work consists of a custom made computer fitted behind a 21" monitor that hangs on the wall like a small painting. It runs a randomized program of a work based on Seurat's Bathers. The composition and the colour of the work are constantly but slowly altering. The eight figures independently fade, disappear, and eventually re-emerge. At the same time each of the six areas forming the landscape slowly change colour through a range of nineteen alternatives

Since 2003 Churchman Landscape Architects have acted as landscape consultants for the University of Warwick.

Working for Churchman's gave me a chance to help with the National Collection Scheme, involving wild flowers and a proposal to develop the university into a recognizable campus.

The Spinnaker Tower is 170 m high tower situated in Portsmouth, UK.  This impressive structure is the centerpiece of the redevelopment happening to Portsmouth Harbor, supported mainly by a large National Lottery grant.

The chosen shape was selected from a series of concept designs by Portsmouth residents.

To reflect the city's maritime heritage, HGP Architects, have modeled the tower around a sail. 

After a few years of delays and massive budget overspend it officially opened on 18 October 2005.