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Edgar Martins - This Is Not A House.
This is not a House formed part of an assignment for The New York Times Magazine, one that turned into an international controversy. The US sub-prime mortgage crisis, which has its roots in the closing years of the twentieth century, became apparent in 2007 and exposed pervasive weaknesses as well as deep-rooted inequalities within financial industry regulation and the global financial system. In the winter of 2008, Martins produced a series of photographs that explored the collapse of the US housing market. He photographed abandoned homes, golf courses, ski resorts, hotels and other building projects in sixteen locations, across six separate States.
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When the work was finally published in the summer of 2009, it became the focus of a heated debate as a result of Martins’ decision digitally to re-shape a select few images. What was a riveting polemic about deception and misrepresentation for some, was to others the re-surfacing of a tiresome, age-old, ontological, epistemological and moral chasm between Art and journalism. However, the public reaction to this article, in Martins’ view is better understood and contextualized when, against the backdrop of uncertainty, ruin and bankruptcy, journalistic ethics and woes, one also considers the resonance and imagery of the ruined shelter throughout US history.
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According to the author Peter D Osborne (who contributes and essay to the book of the project), America is a “Settler Nation” and so any disaster that involves the shelter or the settlement, “extends immediately into metaphor for a whole historical process.” Osborne elaborates, “ The history and imagery of the ruined shelter or settlement are required to furnish the continuing epic of travelling and moving on that is the USA, an epic of disasters endured and overcome for sure, but one ever attended by a sense of America’s precariousness, of its own brevity, its own uncertainty about where and if it belongs.”
This is the real context in which This is not a House appears, the ruins of the house–economy.
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UK readers of our blog can see 'This Is Not A House' at The Wapping Project (info below).

'This is not a House' by Edgar Martins 18 January – 04 March 2012
Wapping Hydraulic Power Station, Wapping Wall,
London, E1W 3SG 00 44 207 680 2080
Opening times: Monday – Sunday from noon to 10.30PM, Except Sundays to 5.30PM.
Admission free.
Nearest tube: Wapping.
Bus: 100

Michael Bierut/Pentagram.
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(ours) Michael C. Place.
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"The HAND.WRITTEN.LETTER.PROJECT was after a conversation about how personal a letter can be: a fact that is currently drowning in a tide of depersonalisation, with junk mail and automated correspondence.
There is always something nice about receiving a letter, especially these days when email, text, status updates, and tweets, dominate our communication, leaving many to lose sight of the things that have been around for a while (like
ink and paper). However, it is important that they do not".
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Lovely project by Craig Oldham.

'Vase of Flowers (Witchcraft)', 2010, Digital C-type on Dibond, 400mm x 300mm
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'Flowers in a Glass Vase (Mans Suffering)', 2010, Digital C-type on Dibond, 400mm x 300mm
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'Flowers in a Vase (In Search for the Semper Augustus)', 2010, Digital C-type on Dibond, 760mm x 550mm
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Really enjoying the work of Rikard Osterlund, in particular his 'Flowers' project.
We made a visit to Whitstable a few weekends ago to visit The Horsebridge Arts and Community Centre who put the 'Flowers' project up as a small exhibition.
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The floral arrangements are made up entirely of artificial flowers, silk and plastic, alongside toy flies, snakes and other reptiles all contained in frames which are reproductions of those used in British museums. Every detail of these photographs is intended to mimic that which it is not; not natural, not the original, not a painting and not in a great British art museum.
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These photographic artworks are magnificent, opulent, deeply enticing images of fragile things. This exhibition will be a feast for the senses and makes us think about what we see and what was once, and still is, considered beautiful. The artistry of the original Dutch paintings is matched in Rikard’s exemplary photographic set pieces. If you read these artworks they speak in a forgotten language, one where each flower had a meaning to the viewer and alluded to a set of expectations both aesthetic and cultural.

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Beate Gütschow at The St Paul St Gallery, Auckland New Zealand.
15 June — 15 July, Gallery One.
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Beate Gütschow’s work with photography addresses the construction of imagery, both within the medium itself through the use of digital and analogue technologies, and the cultural conditions that influence the creation of imagery. Gütschow’s compositions reference 17th Century landscape painting, and architectural and documentary photography of the1950s and ’60s. She draws from her archive of mostly analogue images of buildings, trees, landscapes and people to assemble digital composites. At first glance the final works appear convincing as real scenes, but on closer inspection the spaces and scenes are not quite genuine causing the viewer to question the constructed nature of imagery.
Artist Talk: Monday 13 June 5.30pm
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Part of the Auckland Festival of Photography 2011 http://www.photographyfestival.org.nz/
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Last night saw the launch of the new Nokia typeface 'Pure' created by Dalton Maag. To celebrate Nokia invited 13 design studios and illustrators to design a poster using the new typeface. We were honoured to be one of the invited studios. Each poster is a ltd-edition of 20 only and all the proceeds are to be donated to the British Dyslexia Association. All the posters are available to buy, priced at £50. If you are interested in buying ours, or any of the other posters contact Design Studio via this email. Our design focuses around an original poem by our very own Nicky Place and features a beautiful mirrored foil-blocked QR-code. The code is linked to an animated version of the full poem entitled 'Pure Imagination'.
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As part of an ongoing project we are doing with Nokia we also produced a short film called 'PureReversal'. From digital to analogue we commissioned a woodblock version of the typeface, highlighting the craft of Matt McKenzie of the Paekakariki Press. Filmed on location at his workshop in Walthamstow, London. A ltd-edition print was produced and printed on his original 1959 Heidleberg KS Cylinder 38 x 52 Press.
The short film 'PureReversal' can be viewed here.
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‘Pure’ typeface by Dalton Maag
Film produced & directed by Build
Letterform production by Matt McKenzie
Letterpress by Paekakariki Press
Film & editing by ShootMedia
Original music by J—VEN
All © 2011 Nokia
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For six weeks from September 14 2010, London gallery Chelsea Space is hosting PROCESS, an exhibition focusing on the working practices of the late designer Barney Bubbles.
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The show will contain many never-before-seen items drawn from private collections, including student notebooks, design equipment and tools of the trade, working sketches, original artwork, paintings, reference books and photography.
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Very much looking forward to this.