Housing Art by David Howell
When we made our own house here in Bali, housing art was a primary part of the design program. This priority makes specific demands that call for intelligent solutions, and when they are achieved, the result is far greater than the sum of the parts. The house, the art, and the people living in it all benefit.
Architect, David Howell succeeded magnificently in this regard with the Herne Bay Residence in New Zealand.
As he explains, “This house, for a serious art collector, is simply a series of walls. Each axis is terminated with a piece of art on a wall. Spaces between walls are filled with walls of glass maintaining the open connection to the outdoors. The requirements of wall space for art are balanced with the functional need for an open plan.”
Making Modernism Rich
What is called “modernism” in architecture can be a bit barren and over-blank. The term colloquially refers to almost anything that’s rigorously rectilinear and mostly unornamented. But it doesn’t have to mean aesthetic impoverishment. Frank Llloyd Wright understood this perfectly. Case in point, the Bachman-Wilson House (1954) which has been meticulously restored by its architect-owners Lawrence and Sharon Tarantino. It’s one of Wright’s “Usonian” houses, which were conceived with a vision for a new American architectural vernacular that would be respectful of the natural environment.
What a better world it would be if Usonia had happened, instead of random suburban sprawl and McMansionism.
Photographs by Lawrence Tarantino, A.I.A.
Pascal Morabito Weds his Beloved Marie-Ève . . . Again!
The seasonal winds in Bali have finally shifted and the fresh, dry season has come. It happened suddenly, as if commanded by the hand of Pascal Morabito especially for the occasion of his latest wedding to his lovely wife, Marie Ève. They are so well-matched that they simply can’t resist being wed again and again. And who ever said romance was dead? Not a bit of it.
No Recent Posts on Architecture: wHY?
This blog has been entirely bereft of architecture posts for months. Why the dry spell? I haven’t seen much worth mentioning. The endless insensitive regurgitation of 20th century modernism doesn’t do it. Nor does the egomania of international celebrity architects who rode the wave of wacky overspending that brought us such nightmares as Dubai’s alien cityscape and freakish so-called “design hotels” that amount to little more than houses of horrors. In residential architecture, particularly for tropical second homes and resorts, the gratuitous use of all manner of gimmicks and gewgaws just makes me feel anxious. Or nauseous.
I’ve been looking for contemporary architecture that manifests deep beauty, not superficial stylishness or irrelevant grand gestures. Buildings that fulfull their function elegantly, with forms that follow from that. Buildings with harmonious proportion, balanced placement of solid and void, legible spaces with palpable meaning . . . and all that other good stuff that we know makes buildings more than the sum of a bunch of parts. Well, I found some examples of the kind of magic I’m talking about here. Don’t ask, “WHERE is this great architecture?” Instead say, “wHY . . . IS this great architecture!”
That little “w” is no typo. I’m referring to wHY, an LA-based practice, which has woven together the talents of one Thai, one Japanese and one American partner into a talented triumvirate that makes some of the most relevant and beautiful buildings I’ve seen in dog’s ages.
Much More than Mud Wrestling: Mepantigan @ Green School Bali
Something very strange is going on up at the Green School in Bali. Strange and wonderful. Every full moon the school hosts the most extraordinary performance evening on the Island of Bali, called Mepantigan. It’s impossible to describe, but I shall try. Imagine a troupe of talented local lads and lasses doing drama and martial arts and irreverant yet pointed comedy in a mud-filled rice paddy, with lithe young Balinese girls throwing hale and hearty lads splat on their backs in the muck, and all manner of other mud-merriment, but with music (mostly bamboo) and plenty of fire (from torches, mouths, and the fiery energy of the performers). That’s a snippet of the multi-media-mud-laced magnificence of this madness. Must be seen to be believed.
Oh, and did I mention that it’s: a) traditional, b) a legit martial art, c) sacred, d) musical, e) theatrical, f) beautiful, and g) to benefit the boldly innovative Green School?
Bali Goes to Bollywood: We’re in VERVE Magazine!
Nice feature in Mumbai’s VERVE magazine on “Bali’s Haute Brigade,” which includes yours truly, Susi Johnston. The article, written by a diligent and insightful journalist, Sitanshi Talati-Parikh, gives a fresh perspective on this fabled island, which is certainly more interesting and accurate than any travel brochure or press kit hyperbole ever could be. I was pleased to see the image they included (above) of some of Macan Tidur’s treasures. It occurs to me now that the pieces in the photo evidence even more than most, the Indian influence on Indonesian textiles and ornament. Nice. Very nice. Thanks VERVE, thanks Sitanshi!
Arts of Ancient Viet Nam Coming to Houston
The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, and Asia Society, New York, offer an unprecedented exhibition of art from ancient Viet Nam—the first U.S. exhibition to address in depth the historical, geographic and cultural contexts of precolonial Vietnamese art. Arts of Ancient Viet Nam: From River Plain to Open Sea will expose approximately 110 objects dating from the first millennium B.C. through the 17th century, on loan from Viet Nam´s leading museums.
Highlights of the exhibition include ritual bronzes, terracotta burial wares, fine gold jewelry, Hindu and Buddhist sculptures, and ornaments of jade, lapis lazuli, crystal and carnelian. The works have never before been exhibited.
The exhibition runs 13 September 2009 to 2 January 2010, and afterwards travels to the Asia Society in New York. While we wait for September, let’s all read the book behind the exhibition, by its chief curator Nancy Tingley, with Andreas Reinecke, Pierre-Yves Manguin, Kerry Nguyen-Long and Nguyen Dinh Chien (in stock at amazon.com now).
Custom Furniture: 90% Perspiration
Last week was spent with two designers from Douglas Durkin Design, Greg Elich and Andrew Horn. They were in Bali with me to work on a collection of extraordinary custom furniture for a residence in Hawaii.
For those of you who might imagine that creating high-end custom furniture is pure glamour, just have a look “backstage” at the process of design refinement. We spent hours and hours each day in the workshop, a fascinating place, but very dusty, and very, very hot and humid. And lo! Wonder of wonders! A furniture workshop normally has almost no furniture suited to comfortable sitting, so we perched and paced and mopped the sweat from our brows, all the while utterly absorbed with the work at hand.
Textilians Take Note: Adiwastra Exhibition Jakarta April 15 – 19
The textile traditions of Indonesia are no longer ethnographic curiosities. They are the material of couture creations that can take you from the beach to the ballroom and out on the streets of the world’s culture capitals in capital style.
Not convinced? Just take a look at the chic ikat resort wear, above, created by Ratna Panggabean, one of the country’s most prestigious fashion designers and an outspoken evangelist for Indonesian textile arts.
Then visit the annual exhibition of Adiwastra Nusantara, an organisation devoted to exposing and promoting the traditional textile techniques of the Indonesian archipelago. This year’s show is entitled “Beyond Fashion! Art to Wear” and will take place 15 – 19 April at the National Convention Centre in Jakarta.
Rags to Get Glad About @ SF Tribal
In difficult times we need reasons to be cheerful, so here are some rags to be glad about. SF Tribal, a consortium of art dealers from the Bay Area, has posted a slew of new images on their group site. The ratio of textiles to objects is high. Why? SF is a textilian town, and its astute collectors were early adopters of the concept of tribal textiles as Art with a capital “A”.
Why do they think that way about textiles? See for yourself.