Ian Fairweather Walk

Image courtesy of theaustralian.com.au  

 

I think Artist/ Adventurer Ian Fairweather would have liked this coastal walk dedicated to him on Larrakia land, Darwin.I recently took this walk and was inspired to write about it and share it.

Well done Darwin Council for allowing us to remember this great artist.

Brief summary:
Fairweather (born in Scotland 1891-1974) arrived in Australia in 1933.

Fairweather was a soldier in WW1 and was captured as a POW and during these four years of capture he was allowed to draw and he studied Japanese and illustrated POW magazines. After the war, he studied at the finest art colleges in Europe and this is where his wandering existence began.  He frequently lived in extreme poverty and worked odd jobs. 

He studied Chinese calligraphy which was a major influence on his work.

The Walk
The Fairweather Walk commemorates Fairweather's journey from Darwin Harbour across the Timor Sea, destination Timor.
He built a small raft from aircraft fuel tanks, driftwood and a recycled silk parachute as a sail. He set sail for Timor in 1952 at the ripe age of 60.  Coming close to being lost in the Indian Ocean and being circled by shark safter 16 days at sea, he managed to wash up on the small island of Roti.
The Indonesian Government were not impressed resulting in Fairweather spending two months in an Indonesian jail. He was then deported to England.

Fairweather then returned to Australia in 1953 and spent his remaining days living a solitary life in a thatched hut on Bribie Island, just north of Brisbane. It was on Bribie Island that he created most of his most prolific painting over 21 years.

 

 Above photographs copyright of Casey Temby

It is said that he is inspired by a myriad of influences from his early travels but specifically Chinese calligraphy.

Ian Fairweather | Kite flying 1958 | Synthetic polymer paint and gouache on cardboard laid down on composition board | 129.4 x 194cm | Purchased 1985 with the assistance of funds raised through a special Queensland Art Gallery Foundation appeal and with a contribution from the Queensland Art Gallery Society | Collection: Queensland Art Gallery | © Ian Fairweather, 1958/DACS. Licensed by Viscopy, Sydney 2011.

One of his paintings from 1961, Monastery acquired by the National Gallery of Australia was described by critics at the time as a masterpiece.

Fairweather's style has been described as being a sophisticated clumsiness. He often used materials that were readily available - cardboard or newspaper and the cheapest paints which resulted in many of his works being lost or damaged due to the tropical climate.

Fairweather is represented in all state galleries in Australia, the Tate Gallery, London, City Gallery, Leicester, and the Ulster Museum, Belfast. Ironically, the only exhibition of his own works he ever saw was an 1964 retrospective at the Queensland Art Gallery.



This is a very brief snapshot, for more information on ye old sailor and adventurer see http://www.ianfairweather.info/

Silvia Grav

http://www.silviagrav.berta.me/

Bill Henson

Words are not needed....

Nostalghia - Andrei Tarkovsky

Wow.
I stumbled across Nostalghia by Andrei Tarkovsky (1983) recently and am floored by the cinematography and frames.
Cinema as poetry.
Pure beauty.
Sepia tones.
Oh the beautiful melancholy.

 

 

For more http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OxoXQV9AmEo

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7MV5wWdLKQs

http://mubi.com/films/nostalghia

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RXYhLF2z_NM

 

Tropical Architecture study by Casey Temby

This can be viewed more clearly here in my portfolio:
https://www.behance.net/gallery/DARWIN-TROPICAL-ARCHITECTURE-IDEAS/9339763

Since living in Darwin, I have been amazed at how unsuited the current residential and commercial architecture is to the climate.

Of course the rush to rebuild and rehouse the residents and services after Cyclone Tracey in 1974 was a necessity and the design of buildings was most likely an afterthought. Perhaps they were intended to be short-term buildings and then when things had stabilised these would be replaced with more thought out designed buildings. However, I am not sure if this is the rationale because I still see being built today the concrete blocks that are prevalent in every Australian city, even cities with completely different climates. Whatever the reasoning may be, today Darwin is left with these buildings that are not only an eyesore but also energy inefficient structures that leave a large footprint on the immediate environment.

This study examines tropical architecture in northern Australia and collates the ideas of others who have examined this topic before, resulting in a mock-up residential design. It is worth noting that I have not taken into account cyclonic architecture. In researching this topic, there was a scarcity of information on innovative tropical architecture. The National Archive of Australia, Darwin office housed some literature from the seventies focusing on residential housing design for Darwin which seemed to be the most informed, clear and comprehensive study and this paper refers frequently to its ideas.

The air is thick and humid in the tropics, the heat extreme, the wet is a welcome relief from the heat however it can be torrential, and extreme dust in the dry season. It is essential that air flows to cool things down but also for insects, as the tropics are a haven for mosquitoes. The environment is demanding especially on man-made environments.

These factors need to be taken into account when designing for the tropics and the main recurrent design themes from my studies are:

* Elevation – prevent ants, vehicle shelter, play area, laundry, security, dust, and dissipation

* Orientation – east/west axis

* One-room wide houses – promote cross ventilation

* External awnings

* Shade trees

* White roof (current movement in California)

These themes represent a typology that we sometimes associate with typical tropical architecture but nonetheless a common sense typology that is still relevant today.

An example of pre-Cyclone Tracey typical tropical architecture is Burnett House at Myilly Point that survived the Cyclone and the World War Two bombing.

Quote from the signboard at Myilly Point (above):

Designing for the tropics
Stretching west down Myilly Point [in east-central Darwin] is a group of four tropical houses designed in 1937 by B.C.G. Burnett, principal Government Architect for the Northern Territory. His previous experience in China and Malaya enabled him to understand the local climate. He designed elevated houses with steep- pitched roofs and open eaves to catch the refreshing sea breezes. Further innovations included replacing the external walls with asbestos-cement [ie., fibrolite] louvres that could be adjusted according to the weather conditions. The living areas and bedrooms were separated by three-quarter height partitions to allow for cross-ventilation. Burnett's practical and aesthetic designs established a regional architectural style that continues to influence contemporary housing designs.

 

                                Burnett House with Louvered walls          3/4 partitions and louvres for air flow

Burnett’s selection of ideas and also the aforementioned themes on tropical architecture have informed my design process for a single dwelling home illustrated by basic conceptual sketches below.

 

My study does not consider urban density for example, tropical architecture for high density apartment blocks which is important for the future. It primarily looks at single dwelling structures. However, with future trends in architecture such as the invention of new materials and the use of new technologies perhaps tropical architecture will evolve into another typology that will be more suited to urban density amid the increased population forecasts.
The environmental factors must be taken into account when designing for the tropics and its extremities in weather but why has this been forgotten over the last few decades?

Adapted to to a tropical climate? A residential apartment building in Darwin

 

 

Perhaps it is the allure of cheap, quick real estate with the promise of making quick money from property, however how long can man conquer the environment? Perhaps it will take something like the NT Government’s current mini budget initiative to heavily increase power taxes for people to realise they cannot continue to live in energy inefficient buildings in which one leaves the air conditioning on all day and night. A move back to the traditional concepts of tropical architecture will hopefully be a more alluring proposition enabling Territorians to live more harmoniously with the environment.

Drawn from Life group exhibition

I was thrilled to be able to be involved in this exhibition at DVAA, Darwin organised by Darwin Life Drawing.
It was from 20 September 2013 to 10 October 2013 and I exhibited two pieces and sold the work below.

Meld

Pencil on acid-free watercolour paper

Group art exhibition - 20 September 2013 - DVAA, Darwin, Northern Territory

My new drawings + one painting - Rebecca study, June 2013

Random International - Rain Room

Loving Random International work particularly the Rain Room, 2012, situated at the Barbican Concert Hall, London.

It explores the interaction between human behaviour and the installation and what interests me is the engagement of the senses.

As people progress through the space, the sound of water and a suggestion of moisture fill the air, before you are confronted by a carefully choreographed downpour that responds to your movements and presence.
People can play God for a little while. Let there be rain!

Check out also the beautiful McGregor, Richter & Random: choreographic interventions at the Rain Room, 2012.

More info

Villa Vals - Switzerland

Christian Müller Architects and SeARCH

A home that slices into the mountain, enveloped by its natural surroundings.

It has hints of Gordon Matta Clarke to me.

My Darwin photographs, March 2013

Gordon Matta-Clark (1943-1978)

Matta-Clark’s work is inspirational - the relationship between private and public space, the creation of sculpted voids, destructuring existing abandoned sites, interventions, the mystery of what is behind, ambiguous spaces, deconstructivist architecture.

His work tells a story of the previously inhabited spaces and of its inhabitants by exposing the layers of the building - he has been described as an urban archaeologist.

Matta Clark broke into abandoned buildings in NYC and cut large, geometrically shaped pieces out of walls and floors, sometimes slits through a whole building. This opened up the spaces to create unexpected views, sometimes through the whole building, plus exposing the hidden constructions and layers of the building. This created a play on light, with the light penetration creating sculpted forms allowing for a heightened sensory experience when in the building and new ways to perceive space.

I also like the realism of the work compared to a work being in a museum and Matta-Clark’s use of photography not only as a documentation of the physical pieces but also as an artwork itself.

Concical Intersect 1975

Schematic for Conical Intersect

Splitting 1974

Splitting 1974

Matta-Clark’s work informed and inspired me for one of my university projects:

self storage – Stop. Stay. Preserve

An urban public space to waste useful time. It uses the existing façade and create a ruins-like façade with sculpted void-like entrances. These are intended to blur the interior and the exterior.

The space endeavours to create a journey for the user, a place to slow down, engage with the space, work out where to enter, which direction to take, derive. An ambiguous space for the self - situationist concept.

There are glimpses through framed views attempting to convey the dada concept in which something is behind there.

Its relationship to the site is that the existing site is a high traffic, transient corridor for pedestrians, yet full of disconnection not only between people but also between the man-made and natural forms. There is a sense of encroachment by tall, grey ugly buildings and cement and concrete. All of this contributes to a confused sensory perception.

self storage design intention was to counteract the encroachment by opening up the space, using only the existing façade and opening up the inside with an internal central void and the use of sculpted cut out voids in the façade and second level walkways.

It counteracts the disconnection to place by slowing the user down, making one think about which entrance/ exit to take, thus a sense of arrival, what to do when inside.

Engage the senses through the use of, for example: an internal central garden for scent; play on light through the use of voids; touch through the use of swivel concrete push doors and benches.

It is an un-doing of the existing building as per Matta-Clarks philosophy.

 

 

 

 

self storage - A3 paper with designs on front & back, designed to fold up and has cut out holes

By un-doing a building there are many aspects of the social condition against which I am gesturing: to open a state of enclosure which had been preconditioned not only by physical necessity but by the industry that profligates suburban and urban boxes as a context for insuring a passive, isolated consumer—a virtually captive audience. 

Gordon Matta-Clark, 1977 http://mattaclark.pulitzerarts.org/#/ando-matta

Most importantly Matta Clark's site specific artwork has a sense of humour yet conveys social issues and is a vehicle for his ideology. It is full of puns which attracts me.

Must watch video of Matta Clark in action in Paris