Exhibition design, building walls that relate to the show

In our current exhibition project, we are in the interpretive step, where we are to pull our objects together and begin to think about their display. There are several ways to go about the layout, perhaps by chronology or object medium. We chose to really go into our subject, and my teammate and I ended up at the Women’s Center for hours on end, researching post WWII advertising to women.

In the interpretive step, we have found it most interesting that the dividing walls which separate different parts of the exhibition can be manipulated in so many ways to have unique experiences. These are generally created or influenced by the objects in the show, or perhaps by the era in which they were created. In our case, we chose to go with the streamlined new 1950’s automobile, large, bold curves, shiny aluminum and bulky cabin space as the inspiration for our partition walls for the older part of our show.

The closing of our exhibition features a kitchen designed my modernist architect and industrial designer, Zaha Hadid. This kitchen is elevated on a ramp and so the handrails and supporting walls reflect the sharp lines, and starkness of Hadid’s white countertops. In this room, there is also a slit in the wall/window that is mirrored from the top of the angled wall. This window overlooks the older kitchens that are featured downstairs.

image credit: personal photo

My quilt, a collaborative effort

At the start of every summer, I check out 4 or 5 books from the library on subjects that I have developed interest in during the prior school year. Generally, I will feel a sense of productivity as I leave the library, books in hand, into the summer sun, when I know that I do not have to conquer any ‘required’ reading until the following fall. I read the first several pages, perhaps even chapters and loose interest. Soon enough, the books become simply a temporary display of my fleeting summer interests as they one by one become overdue.

Considering that I am studying design, I’d like to think that this pattern of starting things and not finishing them wouldn’t apply to my creative endeavors. Surprisingly enough, I only began one personal design project this summer, and it was finished last week, with the help of my mother.

I selected a muted pastel color scheme, prints ranging from spotted tie-dye batik, to bold paisleys, to ancient maps, to metallic floral fabrics. I then pieced 5 blocks together and then cut those into 4 long strips. I had 4 sets of 5 blocks, and continued until I could hem together the strips in a “brick” pattern, alternating the seams between the strips to seem as if they were laid like bricks. When looking at any quilt, one will notice the design elements such as emphasis, repetition and rhythm prevalent through out. I then chose one of the metallic fabrics to be the boarder of the quilt.

Last weekend, my mother finished off the binding of my quilt. My mother is a quilter and I was so touched that she has taken the time to show me her technique and share with me her design hobby.

image credit: personal photo

Connections: Spanish Influence in Mexican Handicrafts

This weekend, I ventured down to San Diego, not realizing its geographic proximity to Mexico! I found myself at a Mexican “bazaar.” Growing up visiting Mexico and Guatemala often, I have always regarded Mexican artisan crafts, as touristy trinkets. But it was this trip that I began to analyze the Mexican artisan style as a unique blend of two cultures.

The native indigenous Mexican people have roots in both ancient Aztec and Mayan cultures. They had an advanced language system, which exists now as hieroglyphics painted on their still standing structures. The characters and forms exist in bright color schemes (from natural dyes, inks and paints), thick black outlines and profile aspects. Images depicting highly ornamented spirit gods or human priests feature large headdresses, gaudy jewelry and elaborate costumes.

When the Spaniards came across the ocean to colonize Mexico during the Inquisition, they brought came from a culture of high European art. Most possibly adopted by the indigenous, we see patron saints, carved almost comically out of wood, alongside intricate metal alters, mirrors and other Spanish-inspired sophistication.

The result of these two cultures is a kitschy, simply crafted, brightly colored, distinctive style that is the Mexican handicraft.

image credit: traveldk.com

Young-Helmholtz Theory, thinking about medical care facilities

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If I could blog about color for the next 9 weeks, I would be greatly satisfied. One of my goals this quarter is to learn how to compose and articulate my thoughts into tangible written and spoke word.

At any rate, my electric lighting professor stressed this afternoon the importance of color on the human perception and mood in a space. Designing for humans means that several elements and facets of psychology & human response must be taken into account. Different light filters will provide the guest/visitor with different emotional moods. Manipulating the scale, mood and color is the most efficient, effective and powerful way to accomplish a design goal. Perhaps one of the facilities that needs the most attention in this department is the hospital/ relative healthcare facilities. The well being of the patient, both physically and mentally is the ultimate goal in a building or edifice like this, lighting being the make or break factor in ensuring the optimal patient experience.

image credit: personal photo, taken at UF's new bio-medical building

First reception of the semseter

Today, it would seem that I opted to take Professor Housefeild’s advice and go see the newly installed Hangul show at the Design Museum in Walker Hall. I had already planned to go to it with two friends whom I met at our Davis transfer orientation, and went as not only as a dedicated student of DES001, but as an exhibition design enthusiast and opening reception junkie. I wanted to see how “shows” are run here at this school.

My background in these sorts of things began during my freshman year of college in south Florida, as I watched a multi-million dollar museum project being constructed from my dorm room window. I joined the staff a year prior to the new building’s opening and watched the museum flourish, earn patrons, build a concrete donor base and gain recognition in the international Miami art scene. During the year that led up to the grand opening spectacle, I was privileged enough to work in the 30-year old Frost Art Museum, a definitively smaller space, equivalent to a university student gallery or 2 average sized classrooms.

Needless to say, I had a good feeling walking into Walker this afternoon, remembering the quality of exhibitions that we used to show in our old space. I was reassured of this upon my arrival, as I was greeted by an array of desserts and tiny water bottles! Hostesses and faculty alike were well labeled with name tags and quiet yet cheerful conversations were being had down the hall leading to the new show.

I always feel as if opening days are the best. They are the sigh of relief for the lenders, curators, exhibition designers, registrars, directors, and not to mention the artists themselves. Hyunju Lee and Phil Choo, two educators hailing from Korea collaborated to produce an introspective show exploring their native script, Hangul. The final product was clean, sharp and comfortable to navigate through. A rich navy blue was the accent color on about half of the exhibit. It was a lovely contrast to the stark white that accompanied many of the neon-rainbow prints depicting various syllabic blocks of the ancient characters/letters. The colors of those images that were hung against the rich blue were in more muted, neutral schemes. All of these prints were rich in technical detail, each alluding to an ancient poem, national song or personal reflection of a natural object. It seemed that the artist tried to capture a sense of national identity that could be translatable to an audience of higher educated design students and faculty alike, by “reinventing” the style of text to “appeal to all”. For me however, I couldn’t help but feel that I was somehow lost in translation.

Part of me felt that the main back wall wasn’t utilized fully. It was adorned by a compellation of square, similar brightly colored ink-jet on canvas prints, these, depicting different Korean vowels. The assortment, although neat, was repetitive for me, perhaps mostly due to the fact that I did not recognize the tastefully done graphics as legible characters.

The display sequence of the various images was arranged by media. First, the ink-jet on canvas, bounded by metal scrolls on the top and bottom, affixed to the wall with a single nail hung by a string. Then, the stark white paint color took over and there was the assortment of neon-bright Korean vowels, in a sort of geometric collage, unframed. A pair of “emotions” depicted neatly within two black frames followed on this wall. The third wall featured hand made paper, and traditional scripture, beautifully colored. It was a tri-part series, those referencing to ancient Korean poems. The paper was see-through and the paper gave a distance shadow to the wall from the bright overhead lights. It was a delightful scene. Another large geometric image with the same muted natural color scheme followed the title along the lines of a corn field or some national cash crop. The biggest consistent piece of work was to the left of the entry way, as we had come full circle within the small room. It unimpressively large yet seemed like a Tetris code. In reading the object label, it was the artist’s reinterpretation of the Korean text for common people, or an abridged version, if you will.

Finding Creativity Out of One’s Self

It may be sensible, or perhaps expected that I define creativity, for the sake of a half-decent opening for the proposed title of this entry. Instead, I would like to think of my younger brother and how his creativity is a gift.

I have always been extremely proud of my younger brother, for being such a design- oriented artist. Yes, I said artist. Title proper. He has had training through his experience in school up to college, but I know that is his creativity and his dedication to perfect his technique of media that allows his creations to appear. Refrencing to an article I recently read noting the validity of the term novelty, called Notes on the Etymology of Design: the Socratic Perspective, novelty is a primordial fascination of the human mind, yet its perception seems to be highly illusory, conditioned and influenced. This posed the question, is anything new “an illusion”? For what it’s worth, it’s fair to say that my brother’s fascination with the idea of the future in human development is an excellent outlet for his creativity. My brother by nature of his zodiac sign is a born giver, and within his seeking of an understanding for his own personal architecture work, he has begun to project his humanitarian ideals and ethical spirit with the strong aid of his incredible gift of creativity.

image credit: personal photo, artwork by Jack Garcia

Eggshell wall to deep coral (with magenta undertones) wall

3 days of bundling up for the run across the street to catch the bus to campus later, we found ourselves reading at night buried under blankets, dusting the floor with socks and thawing out in hot steam showers. It has gotten cold. I am from entirely too far away to appreciate this as the “beginning of fall”- hopefully I will get into it.

I walked by the paint chips that had neatly been taped to our eggshell white accent wall and peeled them each off in an anxious rage. Those rich, jewel toned turquoises and blues were not helping me to feel warm and snug. I felt distant in looking at the small panels on the wall. I turned to see my roommate’s reaction as the once-prized swatches came down. She said “I was thinking the exact same thing.” I was too happy, and we mutually agreed that we wanted, muted orange, like the pumpkins lining the windows at Safeway, bright orange like the detail of the citric fruit from a Florida license plate that adorns the heater (WHICH DOES NOT WORK) , coral red, like the now dried peppers on a jar in the kitchen, deep brick red or a flaming neon magenta, which will eternally be the color that makes me think: South Beach.

It is incredible to think of how the weather outside can effect the way we view and seek colors for both mood reference & comfort. Cheers to a new warm Wintery color palate.

Highlighted wall

Anyhow, we finally decided that this sort of turquoise hurricane of a candle holder would be the prefect accent wall color for our family room. For one, it went really well with that cherry wood and my grandmothers (seemingly) antique, proud, lamp. Secondly, summer was hitting this town in the triple digits and we were tricked (which I realized later) into believing that a rich jewel tone of turquoise would calm our boiling blood in the heated house. I constantly felt as if my skin was melting off of my face. Melting hot, like the inside of an oven. It was interesting that we picked only that single wall to accent.

The same day we went to the antique store/ paint chip searching, we purchased several empty black and silver frames from antique shops and a thrift shop in town and proceeded to frame my roommate’s art work, alongside a badly faded PRINT of Monet’s and smaller monochrome PRINT of Van Gogh’s, a skull, seeming to smoke a joint. A neighbor of ours donated a poster of a sepia night shot of the Eiffel Tower, and lining cafes/old buildings. This montage of black/white/sepia would look rich against that bright blue, matching our wooden floors. It would seem like a tower, framing and lining the wall with rich, somewhat uniform visual sensations, varied in size.

The color of the wall

We had finally been inspired by a small hurricane candle holder that we found at an antique store. We had been searching for the perfect color for about 2 weeks, actually from the day we met. The floor in our family room is a warm wood, and the walls are “eggshell white”, all topped off with wooden beam ceilings, possible of Oakwood. The furniture in the room is a cherry wood, table and 3 dining chairs, a coffee table, framed chair with white leather seat cushions and two golden accented lamps, one floor and one table. Both elegant.

The first was part of a myriad of furniture I inherited from my grandmother, most pieces of which I’d say is over 40 years old, I want to say that it is from the 1960’s. I have been studying World War II and its effects on the designs of domestic middle class America household items. As somewhat an offset of the Industrial Revolution, due to the fact that these technologies were not able to be celebrated by the masses, as World War I broke out in the onset of the 20th century soon followed by the Great Depression. The sense of patriotism that pulsed on the home front during WWII helped lighten the hearts of returning troops back home, to the States. I see the movement of the 60’s that occurred could be represented in the material used, the finish seeming like either brass or gold flakes, very elegant, while using modern technology to utilize this material. It may reference Baroque in the intricate detail of the base, which looks like it is on a pedestal. The lampshade makes me thing of the Bauhaus.

I’d imagine that parents who were raising teenagers in this era would have a more formal taste, having seen the prosperous era that WWII brought them into. A hopeful, sense of pride and propriety in life was omnipresent to the middle aged housewife, present in her choice of living room lamp fixture.

Norton Museum of Art

As an American being born and raised in Florida, I have always always been exceptionally fascinated with all-things-Disney. It is a sense of familiarity, the pilgrimage that we all take each year to venture out to the theme parks of the Walt Disney World complex. This past summer, an exhibit opened at the Norton Museum of Art, in Boca Raton titled: Disney: The Music Behind the Magic 1928- Today. It was a show dedicated to the music of all-things-Disney! I was shocked that this contemporary art museum would feature such a fun and interactive exhibit. I was floored when I finally made the 2 hour venture up north to the venue. I heard all sorts of bonks and squeals, giggles and clonks. √