Saturday 31 March 2007

See the Light

Went to see the James Turrell exhibition at the new(ish) Louise T Blouin institute in West London.

She's spent a lot of money on what I suppose is a vanity project - after all you wouldn't name it after yourself if you weren't in it to show off a bit!.


I'd only seen one Turrell piece before (in the Faith Zone of the dome) so was interested in finding out a bit more. There were five pieces (I know it's not about numbers, but I did feel a little short changed for my tenner), two were projected shapes created from a single light source and the remaining pieces were created by reflecting light from various sources into chambers cut out from the wall.

The reflected pieces really appealed, beautifully precise and strangely captivating - a mix between wondering at the subtle changes as your eyes and mind adapted to the light and trying desperatly to work out how it was done.


The building itself is textbook converted warehouse; polished concrete floor - check, lots of smooth white vertical surfaces with shadow gaps - check, liberal amounts of satin stainless steel fixtures and fittings - check. It all felt a little empty and unloved, there were more staff than visitors, large areas of the building were shut off by photocopied A4 signs stuck to doors. It had the feel of a failing Millennium Project rather than a new beacon of contemporary art.


On leaving I asked what was coming next and was delighted to hear that the very wonderful Gerry Judah is going to be exhibiting in the near future. I worked with Gerry on The Glenlivet distillery visitor centre - he created a stunning, sculptural centre piece made from the whisky bottles for us and was a joy to spend time with. I look forward very much to seeing his work in a gallery context.

Friday 23 March 2007

Blocked

Tried to log on to the blog via someone elses network today and got this message.


Seems that the powers that be have got us pegged as porn barons…

UPDATED: Extra Hour?

Saw this in Metro this morning on my way to work:


In my sleepy haze I got rather excited, I hadn't realised the clocks were changing. I started thinking about what I could do with "my" extra hour and how clever Expedia had been to create a topical and tangible campaign (offering free taxis to London galleries allowing people to "do something inspirational with their extra hour").

Wasn't until I mentioned it in the office that someone pointed out we actually lose an hour rather than gain one.

So is it just me or have they made one almighty gaff?

UPDATE
Just got pointed in the direction of this url. Seems that it's not a mistake, just a really confusing bit of copy, the "extra hour" refers to the extra hour of daylight we'll be getting from next week and not the hour we'll be loosing on Sunday morning. Silly me.

Biscuits of the World - Part 3

Of course a holiday means biscuits and I'm rather proud of my carefully researched selection.


So may I present to you home made treacle toffee from Penrtith's Toffee Shop and the world famous and rather tasty gingerbread from Sarah Nelson's Grassmere shop.

Holidays

Sorry been a bit quiet round here of late…

I've been on my holidays - a long weekend in the very wonderful (and snowy) Lake District.


Spent a memorable day on Lake Ullswater fishing for beautiful, scrappy wild brown trout and a few evenings consuming some memorable food in celebration of my wedding anniversary.

Saturday 10 March 2007

Happy Birthday Us

WE ARE ONE

Flourish has survived it's first year in business and what an incredibly enjoyable and rewarding 365 days it's been.

The sense of satisfaction that comes from seeing “punters” enjoying themselves at something we've helped create has never been stronger and while the hours are (much) longer I don’t think any of us would swap our new found independence for life in a big company again.

Many, many thanks to all the friends, family, colleagues, suppliers and clients for all the love, support and laughs.

Lets hope the next year is half as much fun as the first. Now let's get back to work…

Little Bundles of Joy

Instead of spending my Saturday sorting my books by colour as promised, I visited Paddington Basin for a stroll and a spot of lunch.

I have sped (or crawled depending on the traffic) past the development many times on the west way and have always been intrigued about how it looked from the ground. I also wanted to see the famous Thomas Heatherwick unfolding bridge for myself.

The Dim Sum at Pearl Liang was top-notch - fresh, vibrant and plentiful - special mention for the peppered squid, lip tingling, crunchy chunks of deep fried goodness.


The bridge was kind of hard to appreciate in its closed state, we tried fiddling with the controls to get it to curl up, but to no avail (click the picture to see the bridge open)…


I love visiting a business district at the weekend, that whole tumbleweed feeling of emptiness is a refreshing break from the weekday hustle and bustle.

Thursday 8 March 2007

Happy Birthday Barbican


The Barbican turned 25 on Wednesday.

We get a good view of the tower from the window at Flourish HQ, which means I gaze at it daily while pondering some mental challenge (or wondering what to have for lunch).

It's a brave piece of architecture that to my mind fullfils a number of functions very succesfully - concert hall, exhiition space and home to hundreds

The thing is I can't get over how young it is. I would have guessed 35, 40 or even 45 if anyone had asked, it looks much older than 25 and I can't make up my mind why.

Pic by lomokev.

Friday 2 March 2007

Anthony Burrill

Came across this hugely talented individual yesterday


I love it when a number of bits of work that you've admired over the years all turn out to have been created by the same person. Mr Burrill's site is a case in point - the Balerica, London Underground and Kraftwork images have all wormed there way into my unconcious. Seeing them again in the same place, along with the rest of his output provided a welcome respite from a bit of a frantic day.

via the W+K Blog

When I'm cleaning Windows

Without wanting to live up to the stereotypes of the old joke - "Why don't creatives look out of the window in the morning?", "So they've got something to do in the afternoon".

I happened to be glancing out over Clerkenwell when I noticed this fellow.


His amazing pole and brush contraption allowed him to clean the fifth floor windows with one hand, something made me really want to have a go, but by the time we wondered out for lunch five minutes later he'd moved on.

Colour Books

This picture has inspired me to finally try and arrange all my books by colour.


I've always wanted to do this and in fact I started having a go at my bookshelves last month, but ran out of steam. Will report back after the weekend.

Apologies to the owner of these fine shelves, I can't recall who you are or where I came across the image, it's been in my "to blog" folder for a week or so and I've lost track of where I found it.

Biscuits of the World - Part 2

Mr C has been to Paris for a couple of days with his family, as Flourish rules dictate he had to come back with biscuits.

So we're tucking into these little fellas…


…whilst trying to work out which particular Parisian landmark features, any suggestions gratefully recieved.