Experience Mobile Mobile from James Théophane Jnr on Vimeo.

Going West animated by Anderson M Studio

Vladislav Delay – Toive from Lorenzo Sportiello on Vimeo.

An unfortunate bridge railing design when casting a shadow.

It has been a year since The Wall came down in the PR1 Gallery (Archives Nov 08). In the
intervening period it has been re configured and has transformed into a terraced garden.

Terrace is on permanent display opposite bridge eleven, Shelley Road, Ashton, Preston

As yet there are  no plans to move the piece…… not in my lifetime anyhow.

France’s Royal de Luxe theatre company, responsible for events such as the Sultan’s Elephant produce another staggering array of puppets. see more at The Big Picture.

Remember Richard Wilson? Creator of the ‘turning the place over’ installation in Liverpool (below).

He has a new work on the corner of the London School of Economic’s (LSE) New Academic Building called ‘Square the Block’, a striking but subtle addition to the original building. It’s worth a look by all accounts.

When Wilson won this competition in 2007 his proposal was to place a corner where none existed. This huge five-storey structure is remarkably deceptive due to its construction from jesmonite, a lightweight moulded acrylic fibreglass, the attention to detail and matching of colouring, which is so precise that you could easily be convinced into thinking it’s the real thing.

More here

After Tuesdays post on the fantastic Peeps Project. Who should I bump into on my way to work this morning? but the artist himself Dan Dubowitz. We had a really interesting chat, during which he told me about a book on the project soon to be published. I had a sneak peak of the proof (in his hand), designed by Axis.

Dan see’s the installations as a kind of artistic restoration project and insists that even he doesn’t know how many there are. Apparently some of them have been sealed off from public view by further building work in the area, left to be discovered by some future generation.

I think what impressed me the most was his determination to retain the subtlety of the work, by resisting the temptation to point them out in any obvious way, or to create some kind of sculpture trial. Great stuff.

After first moving into the Ancoats area of Manchester a few years ago, I was stumbling home from the pub one evening when I noticed a very dim light emitting from a tiny brass nut attached to the wall of an old mill. Upon closer inspection I could see it was a small viewing hole, and through it I could see a large, well lit room. This one here…

Slightly bemused, I was none the less compelled to discover more. It turned out to be the work of Artist Dan Dubowitz. There are many more of them around the area…

“The artwork, called The Peeps, currently utilises 20 places across the former industrial suburb of Ancoats, and includes a tunnel, a bell tower, a toilet, and even a space inside a mill closed up since the war.

Each of the locations has been walled in and lit. Spy holes have then been installed in them so people can peep through to see the artworks within, which range from mysteriously lit interiors to preserved sewing machine workshops.”

I really like the subtlety of it all. It’s just left to be discovered by the more curious among us, and heard about through word of mouth. There is nothing in-the-round to see, it is without plaque or interpretation panel or guide. No one will know quite how many there are or where they are as more continue to be added, unannounced. I love that.

It appeals to the voyeur in all of us. Giving us access to an otherwise lost environment and era. Preservation at it’s most imaginative. A round of applause to Mr Dubowitz and the Ancoats Urban Village Company for commissioning the project in the first place.

An amazing picture of a melting ice cap, taken in Svalbard Norway, in the news today.