So why are the Ceilings Left Empty?

Parallel worlds are always fascinating because of their complexity and strange familiarity. Sometimes you get stuck in such places as Neil Gaiman’s Coraline. And, at other times it offers you a choice you couldn’t possibly have made, like Doctor Who (David Tennant) creating a duplicate of himself. Ji Lee has created these installations titled Parallel Worlds, he explains:

People fill the floor of their homes with furniture and walls with paints and pictures. So why are the ceilings left empty? Decorating ceilings was a celebrated art form in the past centuries that somehow got lost through the reductionism of modernism. People don’t look at the ceiling anymore. It’s a dead space. So, I wanted to bring a small wink to this space. I also like the idea that somehow there's a parallel world which coexists with ours.

Ji Lee’s Parallel worlds are that of our own realized in contemporary miniaturization, only lacking is an epic adventure and I wonder if the title is a little too ambitious for this project. The focus here is much more to do with the humour and placement and semi-permanent nature of the miniature installation itself. The thing that makes them interesting is that they are very cleverly constructed, appealing and fun. There’s stuff lying on a rug, a chair pulled out invitingly and plants they need attending. Ji Lee asks “So why are our ceilings left empty?” He’s exactly right, maybe it’s time to reconsider this space in new and exciting ways.

Ji Lee – Parallel world. Please enjoy

Haruki Murakami: Behind the Book

These are three objects that kept Haruki Murakami company as he wrote the brilliant and bewitching Kafka on the Shore. Sinchosha Murakami’s Japanese publisher asked the author to take them behind the scenes of the book. He selected things from music to books to objects that helped maybe subliminally maybe not to inspire the story. Here, the objects that he chooses to sit on his desk as he wrote this piece, including his apple laptop. Whilst some of these have a personal significance to Haruki Murakami others he clearly enjoyed! I greatly appreciate him sharing these little gems.

Behind the books: Find out what Murakami eats, drinks and listens to while he writes.

Alice in Wonderland

This is Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll (Charles Lutwidge Dodgson) visualized through book jackets and notable illustrations. Based on the novels Alice in Wonderland (1865) and Through the Looking-Glass (1872). These are two of the most famous, most quoted books in the world. The beginnings of ‘Under Ground’ to ‘Wonderland’ originated as a gift to Alice Liddell. Following the advice of friends, Carroll developed the story into the much loved whimsical adventure that it is. In the Oxford edition in the back pages, you can see how the title comes about. I love how everything is thrown into confusion, nonsense and clever mayhem. “The most neglected and important fact about ‘Wonderland’ is that it is not a ‘land of wonders,’ but rather ‘a land where one wonders.”

I selected pieces that looked interesting in the way that the illustrations were far from being skin deep and superficial. In these illustrations I felt there was a slight edge to them of darkness combined with comedic satire; in the illustration by Camilla Rosa Garcia there's a delicate balance between the soft purples and greens with the black tipped inked lips and lashes. In comparison is the penguin classic, where a little girl stands in such a way when confronted by the queen with her playing card assembly. The queen’s head is seen rather enlarged compared to the rest of her, her crimson colouring strongly hinting at her foul tempered character. There is a black inked finer detailing and strangely mystifying less detailed darker background. Both covers satires the different characters very successfully — not an easy commission for an illustrator to venture, in a list of the most esteemed Tenniel, Rackham and Steadman.

Though considered primarily as a children's storybook… adult readers enjoy it too I think that the illustrations aesthetically re-imagined interpretations are always welcomed. There's openness to new commission’s keeping the book at the forefront of literature. The reader has transported back into childhood fantasy again. Seeking the essence to Carroll’s nonsensical world itself helps us in understanding our own world and the bits of it that just don’t make sense.

I have additionally included further links to the pieces, The British Library has an online page-by-page edition of the whole of Alice’s Adventures Underground, well worth checking.

illustration by Camilla Rosa Garcia

Alice in Wonderland illustrations - Ralph Steadman 1986 here

illustrations by Arthur Rackham - colour plate from 1907 link here

An edition first published an edition in 1865. The Dalziel brothers were commissioned to engrave the boxwood blocks on which Tenniel had made his drawings. John Tenniel illustrated both Alice in Wonderland & Through the Looking glass. V&A collections

Lewis Carroll’s original handwritten story written for Alice Liddell 1864 titled Alice's Adventures Underground now found in the British Library.

Kulula Airline Rebranding

This morning on a brilliant design blog I saw this newly designed info-graphic created by Kulula’s in-house creative team. For South Africa's Kulula airline. The green plane shows 101 interesting facts about the plane you possibly didn’t know.

Apart from the colour, the thing that instinctively hit me—is that in my mind—is how quickly it turned something that was a quirky, fun idea into something somewhat ill-considered and very questionably appropriate! Fear of flying is a common psychological problem among travellers. The info-graphics with a font size so big that I can’t calculate (I’d be surprised if there’s enough space to cover anywhere near 101 facts, even on a 737 passenger jet) the whole thing is ridiculous.

The most obvious association with that number is George Orwell’s brilliantly nightmarish dystopian novel Nineteen Eight-Four, first published in 1949. In room 101 a prisoner is subjected to his or her worst fear or phobia, and that’s why it's so scary, it’s a different treatment depending upon the individuals’ inner fears. The idea of being locked up in the air in a craft titled ‘Flying 101’ does not inspire much confidence. Likely the designer got the idea from an infographic kind of thing, I don't feel that its appropriate on a commercial vehicle, in a pub quiz sure! Now more than ever all sorts of dangers are associated with flying, risks include environmental volcanic ash clouds and the unforgettable airline terrorist attacks. People have good reason to suffer a genuine phobia from flying, or am I being too paranoid? Is bad publicity good publicity? 

Kulula airlines obviously wanted something very daring, eye catching and playfully cool. Graphic design can deliver clever and witty solutions and a plane is an excellent vehicle for showcasing graphic arts. All these other prominent and competitive brands from cars to mobile phones compete using number associations such as the Peugeot 206, 406, 407, Levis® 501’s and 3™ Mobile. I wonder if this was a missed opportunity for Kulula Airlines?

On Wiki Surprisingly, I found other transport using 101 (number) as listed, though combined with a combination of letters before the number is not quite the same:

• Land Rover 101 Forward Control - vehicle produced for the British Army
• STS-101 Space Shuttle Atlantis mission launched May 19, 2000
• U.S Route 101 runs from California to Washington
• DBAG Class 101 is a class of German electric locomotives
• The R101, a British airship, which crashed in 1930
• 101 series, a Japanese commuter train type

In films interestingly the 101 number is used somewhat subliminally to evoke fear: The Terminator and in Terminator 2,  a T-800 Model 101. This makes perfect sense, as it plays on our imaginations in a thought provoking manner.

Photography: Light Patterns

Peeking out of one of the upper floor windows waiting for my son to take the dog out for a walk and wanting to check out the direction he was heading in, one way meant a very short walk for the dog the other a much nicer park space. I noticed the low sunlight reflecting our house window on to the window of the house opposite. Moving the camera at an angle from the window glass, created interesting patterns of light and distorted the reflection. I would have spent longer experimenting as the light was fantastic, but a guy came to the front door, now impossible to ignore since he had seen me looking out.

Strawberry Swing by Shynola

I choose the video because it's a beautiful animation, to be honest, I prefer Coldplay's earlier works, however, this video is worth checking, the project is very well crafted and imaginatively directed by Shynola. Composed using the edge of the pavement with a drain cover in the shot, the asphalt road is beautifully lit (framed from above) forming the backdrop to the piece it’s dotted with chalk sticks like stars. Apart from Chris Martin and a few props the whole animation is beautifully hand drawn using coloured chalk shading and outlines typical to the medium. Shynola creates a flowing stop-motion animation that bends, twists, curves, distorts, shrinks and enlarges. Chris is illustrated in every direction—meaning that they had to draw and redraw, colour and reposition elements and reposition Chris over a thousand times unless its projected film onto that space, which is much more likely! Maybe Chris was green screened to strategically enable him to interact with the animation and the props within this flight of fantasy. When something is produced as brilliantly as this is, it's very difficult to tell just how it was done!

The basic premise behind this piece is a love story that is threatened by a very large squirrel with Chris dressed in a kind of Superman costume. As time is running out for the girl in distress Chris comes to the rescue. It cleverly uses the playful adaptability of the chalk medium, to interject action with humour using film and pop cultural references—animated in a naive and whimsical style.

 Mountains and meandering rivers and a skyscraper city are drawn in perspective. With the Superman costume, he adopts the moves from the Matrix as he dodges arrows fired at him from the super-sized rodent. I like the bit when the squirrel using a large pair of scissors cuts off Chris’ cape. At this point, the chalk animation becomes more real between the chalk animation and Chris’ 3D self. I noticed in the scene where he’s swallowed by a sea monster the lyrics are ‘such a perfect day’ a little ironic. It also referenced the film Pans Labyrinth as he uses a stick of chalk to draw a large acorn to foil the squirrel’s attack.

The piece is titled Strawberry Swing. Maybe that refers to the girl’s name,dressed in red. She looks like a Paperchase mini character, picture perfect on notebooks, tote bags and stuff. I didn’t listen too attentively to the lyrics (as I am more a fan of the Shynola than ColdPlay); I did like the way that it showed Chris’ vulnerability in this dream world. In the end, Chris sits up slightly dazed and two regular guys walk on to the road, they head off together leaving the coloured chalk drawings of the strawberry girl and the butterflies as last imagined.