Space bunny

While in London last week, I was able to see the excellent Psycho Buildings exhibition at the Hayward Gallery, which is celebrating its 40th anniversary. The exhibition makes good use of the Hayward's sculpture courts, one highlight being Gelitin's installation that allows you to admire the London view whilst paddling about in a boat on a flooded upper courtyard lake. Surely it would be a sight to admire from the adjacent Royal Festival Hall's fourth level Blue Bar, but it is unlikely to become a surreal fixture on London's GOOGLE MAP, unless the city happens to be re-surveyed while the exhibition is on.

One project of Gelitin's that has made it onto the google map is a giant (knitted) rabbit (sounds familiar), which will be spending 20 years ON A MOUNTAIN TOP in Italy. (thanks YSH)

There is also a free little show at the Hayward which features community crocheted coral reefs. Unfortunately their website offers little in the way of images or information. The Hayward's website, buried amidst SBC stuff, also contradicts (so does Wikipedia) the Psycho Buildings blurb that boasts of how the gallery was designed between 1960-62 by a radical group of young architects, three of whom later joined Archigram, famous for unrealised projects such as a Plug-in City and a Wearable House called the Suitsaloon.

Image: The giant green Star Wars rabbit

Green Thumbs

I'd be lying if I said I gave even a passing thought to the state of our grounds at home during our time away. So it was without an ounce of guilt that I read a feature on great gardens of the (Western European) world in the August issue of Cathay Pacific's in-flight Discovery magazine on the way home last week.

Most impressive is the 17th century HET LOO gardens in Apeldoorn, The Netherlands established by soon-to-be Scottish and English King, William of Orange, also known as (Bonny?) King Billy (There is a statue of Billy HERE, outside Kensington Palace with a brilliant shadow, and an equestrian statue HERE, in Queen Square, Bristol). Apparently, gardens of this era, also including Versailles, are characterised by their rigid geometry and intricate embroidered designs, imposing and orderly experience of nature. A more freeform approach came about with the optimism of the 18th century leading to the splashy deployment of flowers in STROLLING GARDENS of the 19th century that offered a backdrop for the promenading of the new bourgeoisie. Now we have contemporary gardens such as Alnwick Garden in NORTHUMBERLAND and restored sites, such as the MOORISH GARDENS of the Genaralife in the Alhambra, which have become major tourist destinations.

These intricate, horizontal configuarations seem ideal for viewing from above so it is intriguing to consider, back in the days before airtravel, exactly who they were designed for. Presumably, the privileged viewers were residing up in the castle.

Bringing this horticultural digression back on topic to the business of art (ahem), also featuring in the Discovery article are the Giverny gardens of one Claude Monet. This is where he cultivated fields of colour especially for painting, and later developed a watergarden, inspired by Japanese prints, where he created lily ponds. Bearing in mind this construction and controlling of nature specifically for use as art, I'm tempted to argue for Monet as the forefather of Land Art. Unfortunately, there are no impressionist fields of colour to be found HERE and a quick scout around nearby fields doesn't reveal any haystacks, but I will add these to my list of things to look out for.

Image: Claude Monet - Bassin aux Nympheas Harmonie Rose mug, from cafepress

Spanish Bombs

Given that a primary interest of Art From Space is to curate and explore art by appropriating images of existing phenomena via the digital assemblages of satellite photographs found on google maps, the second life of art works is something we pay a lot of attention to. Although the Mona Lisa is generally considered the world's most reproduced artwork, in Spain it seems that honour goes to Las Meninas by Spanish court painter Diego Velazquez. Despite our not venturing anywhere near Madrid, where the painting now resides at the Museo del Prado, we regularly encountered postcards, t-shirts, jigsaws, coffee cups and even mouse pads emblazoned with the popular work.

Testament to the importance of Las Meninas is the fact that, in 1957, Pablo Picasso produced numerous interpretations of the work, totalling 58 oils which he later gifted to Barcelona's Museo Picasso. Picasso is not the only one and the Museo Picasso currently has an exhibition of works by a long list of artists, all inspired by the same painting, including Salvador Dali, Richard Hamilton, Phillipe Comar's perspective analysis, and Eve Sussman's video re-enactment, which was recently shown at the Govett-Brewster Art Gallery. Other derivatives were found on the streets of Spain including a grouping of three of the pictured sculptures by Manolo Valdes, just installed on CALLE ERCILLA in Bilbao but yet to appear on satellite view.

Another work we kept running into without having to visit Madrid was Picasso's Guernica, which also once resided at the Prado but is now at the Reiner Sofia, as overthenet have recently noted. This is probably not surprising given that we were in Basque territory where the work has inextricable links to the region and the staunch independence of the locals, who are unlikely to ever have it on home turf, even after the construction of a local Guggenheim franchise. In addition to the usual paraphenalia, we found this framed jigsaw puzzle hanging outside a games shop in the alleys of San Sebastian's old town.

It seemed fitting, then, that the last stop on our Spanish tour had fortuitously become a pilgrimage to the actual town of Guernica, officially known as Gernika-Lumo in Basque. It is interesting to consider the contribution Picasso's painting continues to make to international awareness of the blanket bombing of the town by German Luftwaffe pilots on behalf of Franco's Nationalist forces in 1937. Even so, the name now seems synonymous with the painting and the actual place has a more mythic quality to it. So walking through Gernika's streets, it is odd seeing signs that bear its name to proclaim such mundane things as the local podiatrist's clinic.

Not far from the church of Santa Maria, one of the only structures to survive the bombing, is the pictured ceramic-tiled reproduction of the painting - Guernica in Guernica. Just along the road in the other direction is another significant surviving location, the Tree of Guernica (Gernikako Arbola) a symbol of freedom under which the town's people and national officials have been meeting for centuries. Unfortunately, google's resolution doesn't quite let us see this sacred site, but I can't help wondering how much this AERIAL VIEW resembles what the German pilots saw 70 years ago. It is probably also worth noting that a bridge and ammunition factories, which were ostensibly the bomber's targets, survived the three-hour blitz.