NAPOLI

Sue Barr looks at the extraordinary architecture and engineering of Italian motorways and the striking juxtapositions they make with the city and the landscape. A photo essay. ©Sue Barr

©Sue Barr

Genova

©Sue Barr

©Sue Barr

SÖDRAKULL FRÖSAKULL

Södrakull Frösakull is a conceptual photographic investigation of perception and representation. Mikael Olsson used two private houses by Swedish Modernist designer Bruno Mathsson and the belongings in them as a starting point to create something new. The Södrakull photographs focus on voyeurism and Frösakull on identity and history. The images shown here, and more, are included in an eponymous book published by Steidl Verlag. Courtesy Mikael Olsson/Galerie Nordenhake Berlin/Stockholm

FK04.2003

www.mikaelolsson.se

FK03.2003 ©Mikael Olsson

FK05.2004 ©Mikael Olsson

FK01.2000 ©Mikael Olsson

FK09.2002 ©Mikael Olsson

FK09.2004 ©Mikael Olsson

FK15.2004 ©Mikael Olsson

At Södrakull, the photographs were taken from the outside through half-drawn curtains. Olsson assumes the position of a voyeur, who doesn’t have access to the building, but is drawn towards the hidden to take a hasty glance. The pictures are more abstract than the images in the Frösakull series. In this sense they oppose the idea of a precise memory, while adding a personal dimension to the project, which is closely related to the act of perceiving. The photographs constitute an interplay of intimacy and distance, and a subjective approach to Mathsson’s legacy.

SK10.2002 ©Mikael Olsson

SK12.2002 ©Mikael Olsson

SK13.2002 ©Mikael Olsson

INFORMAL ARRANGEMENTS

Improvised back alley seating in Hong Kong. Captured by long-time resident Michael Wolf, the chairs speak of how these hidden lanes are used for momentary rest and how discarded items are brought back to life. This is no chic upcycling, just functional and inventive re-use. The haphazard arrangements form a captivating urban still life.

“Hong Kong’s back alleys are often unnoticed against their more glamorous counterparts of dazzling architecture. However, they present an authentic slice of Hong Kong’s grass roots culture. In my opinion they should be nominated as a heritage site.” – Michael Wolf.

The photographs and some of the ‘bastard chairs’ collected by Michael Wolf were exhibited at Flowers Gallery in London in late 2015 and early 2016.

Published in: Hong Kong Informal Seating Arrangements (Berlin: Peperoni Press)

©Michael Wolf

Max Creasy documents the ad hoc, contemporary vernacular furniture he encountered in Crete. Ingenious, surprising, often surprisingly solid, many of the pieces he finds express what Richard Wentworth has termed 'making do and getting by'. Yet in their functional lack of concern for conventional aesthetics so many of these things become quite beautiful; mixing materials and metaphors, unselfconsciously arranging objects and containers like an artwork - a Morandi or a surrealist tableaux.

http://maxcreasy.com/

"My girlfriend and I went to Crete on holiday a few weeks ago.
The Greeks spoke a strong language with their improvised use of materials. They solve problems with a very rudimentary logic."

Graphic designer Christian Küsters' photos of his East London environs including images of architectural landmarks the Balfron Tower and Robin Hood Gardens.

These are a selection from his book available via his website www.chkdesign.com.

More images on https://www.instagram.com/chkdesign/

When a group of Italian illustrators left the Cinecitta studios in Rome and arrived in London in the early 1960s they found a grey city receptive to their bold, colourful, sexy illustrations. Together with some like-minded British counterparts they flourished for a few short years in a quick-fire environment of trashy paperback covers, film posters and magazine illustrations.

These works (courtesy of the Lever Gallery) illustrate the dynamism of an illustration style that helped sixties London swing.

Michael Johnson, White and Black Dress, c. 1965, acrylic on board.

Johnson painted this to pitch to art directors at fashion magazines. It was one of the first images Johnson created with acrylic paint, which first became available in the 1960s. Before this, illustrators used egg-based casein paint. The new acrylics had greater colour depth and were more resilient than casein being almost waterproof once dry.

©Michael Johnson, courtesy of Lever Gallery

Pino Dell’Orco, A Free Agent, 1965, acrylic and pencil on board.

A Free Agent was a love story set against the backdrop of the Cold War, written by Frederic Wakeman in 1964. Dell’Orco often works with one bold, abstract colour as the background, while detailed action dominates the foreground and appears to burst off the page. This graphic layering gives his cover illustrations a 3D effect.

©Pinto Dell'Orco, courtesy of Lever Gallery

Renato Fratini, The Devil’s Profession, c 1965, acrylic on board.

Russell O’Neil wrote The Devil’s Profession in 1963. A novel about a good-looking, narcissistic actor who will do anything to get a Hollywood contract, becoming his gay agent’s ‘kept boy’, despite being heterosexual. The image is painted in greys and lit starkly, as if by theatre spot lights; the foreground figure is depicted in an almost androgynous way.

©Renato Fratini, courtesy of Lever Gallery

Michael Johnson, Collage - Woman, Bullseye, Cities, c. 1965, acrylic on board.

Commissioned to illustrate a crime story in the German magazine, Bunte, Johnson didn’t encapsulate the narrative with a single scene, as he would usually, but lifted a number motifs from the story and assembled them like pieces of evidence on a pin board. Johnson himself appears in the illustration as the photographer.

©Michael Johnson, courtesy of Lever Gallery

Gianluigi Coppola, Wonderful Clouds, 1965, mixed media.

Wonderful Clouds was written by the French novelist Françoise Sagan in 1960. This Penguin edition was published in 1965. Under the legendary art director Germano Facetti, Coppola’s modernist take on pulp fiction motifs made the novel accessible to whole new markets, while also attracting the avant-garde.

©Gianluigi Coppola, courtesy of Lever Gallery

Renato Fratini, Try Anything Twice, 1965, acrylic on board.

Fontana published Peter Cheyney's novel Try Anything Twice in 1965. Fratini caught the mood of the pulp thriller with a stylishly dressed woman on a chaise with a cigarette and a gun. Although this is classic pulp styling, the minimal composition looks toward modernism with more than a slight nod to Hitchcock. The unusual pose and nuanced expression also give the piece a depth not typical of the genre.

©Renato Fratini, courtesy of Lever Gallery

Renato Fratini, Too Many Women, c1965, acrylic on board.

Rex Stout’s Nero Wolfe Novel, Too Many Women was published by Fontana around 1965. The candy pink background and feather boa are given a grown-up edge by a woman clad in skin-tight black.

©Renato Fratini, courtesy of Lever Gallery

Gino D’Achille, Nova – Life on a Council Estate 1. c 1965, acrylic on board

Painted for Nova magazine, D’Achille captured the optimism of council estates in the sixties. The modernist architecture is elegant, from its ordered façade to the splash of blue amongst plain and simple materials. Offset with a lush tree and even playful chalk drawings on the pavement, the piece is designed to be compared to its partner, Life on a Council Estate 2.

Gino D’Achille, Nova – Life on a Council Estate 2. c 1965, acrylic on board

Painted for Nova magazine in conjunction with Life on a Council Estate 1, D’Achille peels away the stylish modernity of the building's façade to illustrate the council residents' imagined lives.

TEMPORARY FIX

US visual artist Andy Mattern's series of photographs reveals a well of latent artistic talent.

With thanks to Andy Mattern.

TIME MACHINE: BUDAPEST STAIRCASES

The staircase in an apartment block is a vertical street, a part public/part public route which is as much about representation as access. Balint Alovits' photos of spiralling Budapest stairs give an impression of infinity, a sense of swirling vertigo but they also underline the architectural invention and thought that was applied to what might otherwise have been purely functional.

With thanks to Balint Alovits.
http://www.balintalovits.com/

©Balint Alovits

Die Stahl Kirche

Copper & Brass Research Association, New York

The Architectural Press, London, 1963

Car Parks

Cover © Dr Ervin Jaklics

Müszaki Könyvkiadó, Budapest, 1978

Paulus Verlag, Recklinghausen, 1964

Studio Vista, London, 1968

THE OTHER SHINOLA

Photographer Camilo José Vergara has been returning to Detroit regularly for 40 years. He documents the destruction and the ruins but he has also been recording the signs and murals of the city, the visual legacy of African American culture. With a remarkable diversity of style, scale and subject, the paintings on the walls are fading but in Vergara's photographs they shine.

Read Vergara's proposal for The Other Shinola here.

Curry's Auto, 8081 Livernois Ave., Detroit, 1998. Sign by folk artist Eugene.

A homeless folk artist approached the owner of Willie's Garage about painting the façade. The artist painted the story of transportation, a playful arrangement of letters, vehicles, and animals ranging from donkeys to jet planes. In 2015 the former garage is being refurbished. 2520 Michigan Ave., Detroit, 1991.

'67 Lincoln, Willie's Garage, 2250 Michigan Ave., Detroit 1997.

Hand Rinses Car Wash, John R. at Grand Blvd., Detroit, 1999.

Fenkell Ave. at Monica, Detroit, 1995.

Mr. G's Billiard Room, Fenkell at Kentucky, Detroit, 1993.

Mural by Finesse Art Works, Grand River Blvd. at 14th St., Detroit, 1995.

Curtis Lewis, mural depicting an Egyptian pyramid, the Renaissance Center and a portrait of Mayor Dennis Archer, honoring the African American identity of Detroit. The mural has disappeared along with the former Canfield Market, whose back wall it once graced. East Canfield Street at Philip Street, Detroit, 2008.

McNichols East at Alcoy Avenue, Detroit, 2011.

Hot T-bone steak with trimmings, R&D Soul Food, 11811 East 7 Mile Road, Detroit, 2012.

15535 West McNichols Rd., Detroit, 2015.

Soul Food, Glenn's Kitchen, 9525 Wyoming St, Detroit, 2014.

Rain On Us Deliverance Ministries, 4256 Mitchell, Detroit, 2003.

Livernois Avenue at Northfield Street, Detroit, 2006.

Van Dyke Ave. at E. Forest, Detroit, 2008.

Hats Galore and More, 10061 Gratiot Ave, Detroit, 2001.

Reggies Styles Unlimited, 9047 Woodward Ave, Detroit. 2000. Painter William Lane, 1972.

Glen's Barbershop, painted by Ron. 16234 Plymouth, Detroit. 2015.

“Decayed Dentures,” Customized Dental Laboratory. 2919 Mack Avenue, Detroit. 2007.

Above the image, the sign reads: "Dancing, I Choose You Presents Ballroom Classes." 7631 W. McNichols Rd., Detroit, 2015.

West Montana St. at Woodward Ave., Highland Park, Detroit, 2009.

Coleman Young, Woodward Ave. at Quick Lane, Detroit, 2011.

Gratiot Ave, by Fisher, artwork by Bird. 465 9942 Detroit, 2010.

Read Vergara's proposal for The Other Shinola here.

Seaside Shelters

Situated in the vague space between street furniture and architecture, the British seaside shelter is the structural embodiment of the paradoxes of the British summer. It is an expression of the peculiarly British experience of a summer holiday beneath clouds that are constantly threatening to burst, while sheltering your chips or Mr Whippy from a gale. But it is also one of Britain's rare contributions to a generous and enduring architecture of public space.

Will Scott's photos beautifully capture the odd isolation, architectural variety and continuing usefulness of this archetype of the British holiday.

This selection of photographs of vehicles with repaired and replaced panels and doors is by Daniel Eatock. That this harlequin approach to repairs looks so odd is the perfect illustration of how absurd the automotive model is - a product prone to scratches and knocks finished in a vulnerable gloss. These ad hoc replacements should, Eatock suggests, be celebrated and enjoyed.

With thanks to Daniel Eatock.
eatock.com

©Daniel Eatock

Roadside America

On a series of road trips across the US over forty years (1969-2008), John Margolies recorded the fading remnants of a culture of roadside architecture which was under threat from freeway building, changing taste and corporate fast food. His photos of the bizarre, the surreal and the often downright brilliant examples of twentieth century popular architecture are credited with giving the development of Post-Modernism a critical boost and giving the culture of architecture a much-needed shot of humour and expression in the 1970s and 80s. The photos were, in their own way, as important as the writings of Robert Venturi and Denise Scott-Brown and Charles Jencks in arguing for a more inclusive and more entertaining canon of modern design.

Trail Drive-in Theater, SW Military, San Antonio, Texas