24/11/2011

Geek of the Week





Barcelona based illustrator Kavel Rafferty often makes sketches in series, finding meaning through difference, repetition and the accumulation of objects. While shoes, records, cranes and signage are all charmingly collated and catalogued in her work, it's the images of childhood and nostalgia that are somehow more telling.



Freud would reckon on the collector's indexical drive arising from the need to find order in chaos, abate the passage of time and guard against loss. Or maybe collecting stuff is just good ol' geeky fun. Either way, you can decide for yourself as Kavel spreads her archive fever to East London, curating an exhibition of Risographic prints by collectors, artists, photographers and designers at East London's Mill Co. Project. With all the work up for grabs, they may start collecting your pennies too!



• Images courtesy of another of Kavel's exhaustive side projects, Record Envelope.
Collectionistas, 26 Nov, 12 noon-7pm
The Mill Co. Project, Lime Wharf
Vyner Street, London E2

19/11/2011

Judy Hawes 1967

Ladybirds are something I'd usually associate with high-summer but it's been a bumper year for these beguiling little bugs and they're still hanging around now, thrown into relief on the black wood of our garden studio, deep into November.

Judy Hawes, 1967

• Illustrations are by Ed Emberley from Judy Hawes' embarrassingly good
Ladybird, Ladybird, Fly Away Home (Adam & Charles Black, London, 1967/1970)

11/11/2011



Around this time of year I just can't help thinking of Josef Sudek's spectacularly miserable mid-1950s studies, 'From the Window of my Studio'. Maybe that's why I'm especially happy taking a working break this weekend and joining the irrepressible Alice Tait alongside another 30-odd vendors at the Hampstead Holiday Market. If you're the tombola type, find raffles just-the-ticket or are simply in the market for some bargains... come along!



12 noon until 5pm
Saturday 12 November 2011
Rosslyn Hill Unitarian Chapel
Hampstead High Street, London

04/11/2011

Haus Proud

There's no such thing as a bad stockist, some fire-off automated orders while others become friends, some places I've known for years while others I'll likely never visit. One place I'd love to go is also our latest stockist, The VitraHaus shop of the Vitra Design Museum in Weil am Rhein.



Depending on how you view it, Vitra Campus is either the Disneyland of architectural design or a town planner's nightmare: with a Buckminster Fuller dome; Jean Prouvé petrol station; Zaha Hadid fire station; Jasper Morrison bus shelter and Nicholas Grimshaw factory, but no Waitrose.



Showing recently at the gallery annexe of the Vitra Design Museum was the enamel work of Post Modern polymath, Ettore Sottsass. Vitra Campus is also, curiously, the resting place of the original Eames office. Now, ready to book that trip?



• VitraHaus, Herzog & de Meuron, 2006
• Vitra Design Museum, Frank Gehry, 1989
• Ettore Sottsass, Enamelled copper vases on wooden bases