Author: postcardsfromsanantonio

Postcard from London, England: From conquer-phobia furniture to man-skirts

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Above: Interior of The Design Museum

A basement space in the Victoria & Albert Museum was the first home to Boilerhouse, a showcase for modern design that outgrew that space and another subsequent one before transforming the 1960s Commonwealth Institute into today’s The Design Museum on Kensington High Street. The most striking feature of the post-war modernism landmark originally designed by RMJM is its tent-like parabolic copper roof. The dramatic interior rehabilitation of it was completed in 2018 under the direction of John Pawson.

Exhibitions change, but I’m going to mention two. The first is “Antifurniture,” handsome wooden sculpture designed by performance artist Fyodor Pavolov-Andreevich and BoND Architecture to engage interaction, to invite one to “inhabit” the works. By “one,” I definitely mean someone other than me. Among the phobias the artist strives to help combat are agoraphobia, atychiphobia, demophobia, gelotophobia, acrophobia and basophobia.

Sometimes when we feel overwhelmed we may ignore the problem before us and metaphorically ‘bury our heads in the sand.’ This reaction can cause anxiety and encourage us to avoid the problem; Rock-n’-Desk, however, invites you to confront it.”

Fyodor Pavlov-Andreevich
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Postcard from Palermo, Sicily: Phillips’ passion for collecting left me entranced

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Above: Detail from “Curriculum Vitae XI,” Tom Phillips

The muses visit children in disguise with shrouded gifts ~ Terpsichore gives her a skipping rope ~ From Clio he receives old stamps of far forgotten colonies ~ Darkly to me Apollo and his team present the pnuema ~ the creative spark ~ all strife of art inside a filing clerk.”

Excerpt of text on Tom Phillips’ “Curriculum Vitae XI”

Last spring, we almost missed what emerged as our favorite museum in Palermo. Palazzo Butera was newly opened. Although we passed by it often, we didn’t see it in any guidebook or even resources online.

Word art by British artist Tom Phillips (1937-2022) so captivating it demands you stop in your tracks to slowly digest every morsel of poetry within each piece. But how could I absorb them all when we had a whole museum ahead of us?

The amazing part of this is his process. Most of his “Curriculum Vitae” series is composed in iambic pentameter, a form of traditional English poetry with ten syllables per line (Yes, I learned this through labels.). Yet, they are written, or carved as it were, somewhat on the fly.

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No need to travel afar to engage with contemporary art

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Above: Detail of “11th-Century Persia to 19th-Century America,” from “The Black God Tapestry,” Sandra M. Sawatzky, 2008-2017

Today many of us have become so accustomed to abstractions in contemporary art that any kind of figurative work comes almost as a shock. Yet, how are we to connect to the many non-human worlds that surround us if not through figurative imagery?”

Amitav Ghosh writing about Sandra Sawatzky’s “Black Gold Tapestry”

Through the years, I find myself increasingly drawn to figurative art. After wandering around the Blanton Museum of Art this past weekend, I realized those were the only pieces that caused me to pause and read the descriptive text accompanying them. The only ones I snapped pictures of to share.

The other unifying factor of these images is that all the artists are from North America. And all, save Mexican muralist Sequieros, are living, contemporary artists. Several I have been fortunate enough to meet or hear them speak about their works.

When we travel, we enter as many art museums as we can squeeze into our trip. Yet, when home in Austin, we often fail to make time to see the art available in our own backyard.

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