Amateur Ramblings

Candid Camera

Artist Liu Bolin has produced numerous pieces involving him camoflagued within this urban surroundings. I like them for the skill and inginuity.

More images here, here and here.

Hair piece

Thanks to Dean for tipping me off to the talents of Mr Bingo. This fine illustrator does a wonderful line in 'hair portraits, such as this one of The Mighty Boosh.

Filler

I like Platform 21's 'Lego fix for distressed' wall project.

More pictures here.

One & Other

Anthony Gormley has a new piece. He has arrange it so that from 6th July and every day for the next 100 days (and for 24 hours a day), a different member of the public will be installed on Trafalger Square's Fourth Plinth.

Live streaming of the event can be seen here.

Photo Credits: Aarkangel (Empty Plinth); Chrisjohnbecket (Plane Thrower)

Transfer Patient

I was recently very amused by this strip on The Perry Bible Fellowship site.

Stuff it!

Observations is the visual art blog of Anne Karsten. She has enacted the wonderful idea of making stuffed toys based on the drawings of children.

Transport News

I'm wouldn't be at all surprised if one of the factors that leads to our inevitable extinction is our blind trust in technology. Evidence of this comes from a story I read last night about a man from round these parts Doncaster to be precise).

Robert Jones claims to be a 'professional driver' by trade. But there seems nothing professional about his standard of driving last weekend, as he slavishly followed the instructions given by his satellite navigation device down a steep, rocky and ever-narrowing footpath, stopping just shy of what has been described as a 'cliff edge'. Quite rightly,the police intend to charge him with the offence of driving without due care and attention.

Another story that caught my eye this week was actually a free advertisement for the admittedly wonderful Miniatur Wunderland. This is an £8m, 12,000 square foot model railway built by twin brothers Frederick and Gerrit Braun in Hamburg. Miles of track take in an impossible journey from the Alps of Switzerland, the fjords of Scandinavia, and the rocky presidential faces of Mount Rushmore. Plans to extent the network to include Italy, France and the UK should be realised within the next five years.

Entry is only €10 for adults, which seems reasonable given that the exhibition employs a staff of over 150 . I found that none of the individual photographs of the model do not do it justice, so I have the pleasure of enclosing the 'Official Corporate Video' below.

No Hartbeat

Sad news; Tony Hart has died.

 

Here are five Hart-facts that you may or may not know:

• During the 2nd World War, he served in the 1st Gurkha Rifles.
• His television programs included Vision On, Take Hart, Hartbeat and Smart Hart (I don't remember this last one - I guess I'd grown out of kids TV by then), and he often received more than five million viewers and around seven thousand letters a week.
• He designed the 'ship' logo for Blue Peter.
• He didn't have a hand in designing Morph, his popular Plasticine sidekick. The character was developed by Peter Lord, who went on to found Aardman Animations.
• Norman Anthony Hart was one of a dwindling number of television presenters to have been born prior to television itself become commercially available.

The Bear

I forgot to mention the sheet of A4 Andrew found in the Museum cafe. It is really random, and made me smile and emit question marks from my brain. Here is the front:

And here is the back:

(Click in the pictures to make them bigger).

 

Licht Auf Licht

I popped into Project Space Leeds in the week to enjoy their current exhibition of Hans Peter Kuhn's work. He has been commissioned to work on the Light Neville Street project, which I hope will result in the tidying-up of this tired and neglected street underneath the train station.