Last time we went to Barcelona, I made sure I’d save some time to visit the design museum. The whole city is known for its love of art and design, so I had big hopes for it.

The permanent exhibition is separated into four categories: Product Design, Decorative Arts, Fashion Design and Graphic Design, and it houses more than 70000 objects resulting of the merge of four different museums in the city. Usually they will recommend that you go to the top floor and then make your way down.

I’m not sure if the graphic design area was under construction, or meant to be expanded, but I couldn’t help but feeling a bit underwhelmed. There were so many objects in all the other areas that I wanted to see more!

Nonetheless, I still enjoyed all the floors and loved the new building.

Info:
Pl. de les Glòries Catalanes, 37-38
Opens Tues to Sun from 10am to 8pm
Permanent Exhibitions 6€
Temporary Exhibition 4€
Combined ticket 8€
Free entry every Sunday from 3pm to 8pm and the first Sunday of each month

As a designer, you would think I would get off the plane in Berlin and go straight to the Bauhaus Archiv, but honestly, it took me the better half of a year to actually visit it…no excuse thought.

For those who have not idea of what I’m talking about, Bauhaus was a German art school founded by Walter Gropius in 1919 and it is probably the most famous one, given the impact it had on art, architecture, and interior, industrial and graphic design. Their teachers included the likes of Paul Klee and Kandinsky, László Moholy-Nagy and Josef Albers, and as epicenter of creativity it was closed by the pressure of the Nazi regime on the false assumptions that in was a center for communist intellectualism.

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Each country has their own special recipes, foods and ingredients. Some which are new, some which date hundreds and hundreds of years. During the first couple of weeks in Berlin I made it my  mission to try as many new foods, flavours, dishes as possible (no matter how strange or new they seemed to me)

After a bit of research and in a way of forcing myself into a creative project as well, I’ve decided to create ‘The ABC of German Food’ a typography and photographic project where I research and create photographic pieces on two of my ‘favourite’ subjects, typography and food. For the next couple of weeks/months/howeverlongittakes I’ll be posting a new german dish, all the way from A to Z. So lets start with A!

Apfel Strudel (Apple Strudel)

Even though some will argue that the Strudel is actually from Austria, the Apfel Strudel is a staple in any German household. The word is self, Strudel, derives from the Middle high german ‘Whirlpool.’ It consists of a piece of pastry, filled with a tart apple filling with cinnamon, breadcrumb and maybe raisins, nuts or rum (depending on the recipe) and rolled into a log and baked.

Some say the first recipe ever recorded was found in 1696 at the Wiener Stadtbibliothek (State Library) and it was highly influenced with the Ottoman Empire’s cuisine, specially since the puff pastry typically used in the Turkish baklava was the base for the dish.

A couple of years ago my own grandmother taught me how to make one. You can find the recipe here.

On a ‘type’ note:
American Typewritter
ITC American Typewriter was designed by Joel Kaden and Tony Stan in 1974. It retains the typical typewriter alphabet forms, lending the font a hint of nostalgia.

 

I’m usually a fan of museums so it’s not surprising to see me recommend an exhibition or a specific museum. But today’s recommendation is not one to take lightly. This was by far the best exhibition I saw all year (last year really since it was 2015)

Ever since we got to New Zealand, Le boyfriend and I were told that we had to go to the Te Papa museum, that it was by far the best in the country and that you would enjoy it even if you didn’t like museums. So we made it a obligatory stop when we had our day trip to Wellington.

The Gallipoli: The scale of our War exhibition by Weta Workshop, was created for the centenary of the First World War and it focus on 8 specific New Zealanders that were part of the 8 month Gallipoli Campaign, the exhibit also has 3d maps, models, miniatures and interactive sections that will take you around the history and experiences of this campaign.

Each figure is 2.5 times the human scale and the level of detail in these is amazing, even though the scale helps, you can see each hair, each drop of sweat that will make the models so life like that I almost thought they were going to stand up and start walking at some point.

To give you an idea of the work and detail on each piece, Le boyfriend and I went to Weta Cave and had a tour around their facilities, all the way to the end of it was this girl sitting next to one the gigantic heads, placing with a needle, each hair around his head. We asked her what would happen if she accidentally put more pieces of hair in one go and her response was ‘Once or twice would be fine, that can happen, but if it happens several times I would take them out and start again’ She was even placing hairs that then we going to be ‘shaven off’!

The exhibition is not long and free entry so any one can drop by and spend half an hour to an hour walking trough the models, listening to the narrated stories of each New Zealander and overall immersing into the campaign.

When I was around 6 or 7 le dad flew to New York… it was the 90’s, Argentina was in a ‘good’ economic state, 1 USD was equivalent to 1 ARS and my sister and I were young, this could only mean one thing….presents!

Besides getting the most fabulous pink power ranger costume (which suffered a tragic fate…. poor thing) and a mini floor piano like the one in BIG, I got a briefcase…. but not just any briefcase, one that had everything that a young creative would want: pastels, colour pencils and pens, watercolours, crayons, etc. You are now probably smiling because you know exactly what I’m talking about, I’m talking about this beauty…

I don’t know what happened in life that we stopped colouring….us adults I mean. Unless you choose a career that’s linked in any way to art or design, adults don’t colour anymore, the random doodle in the edge of a page yes or maybe painting as a hobby but we don’t colour anymore…

I was struggling the last couple of weeks to find inspiration to write, I couldn’t find anything interesting to write about or the inspiration to sit down and type stuff on my computer….blogging if you will (JK) that was until I got a little book on the mail.

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Last night I came across the most awesome event, it’s called Arboria and its place in the Aotea Square. School holidays are near are apparently this is a ‘great option’ for children on holidays…I call BS and expect someone to take me haha

From what I read Arboria is a ‘Luminarium’ created by the group Architects on Air. This specific luminarium is dedicated to trees. Upon entrance you can find a couple of metre high domes, each one dominated by a single colour and rendered graphics on the chosen theme. It’s an overall visual and sound experience which took over the world since it was built at the begging of the year.

It has a $12 entrance fee but it looks freaking awesome! Trading hours are as follow:

• 3pm – 6pm (last admission), Thursday 24 September (walk up sales only on this date)
• 12pm – 6pm (last admission), Friday 25 September
• 10am – 5pm (last admission), Weekends
• 10am – 4pm (last admission), Weekdays

Who’s coming?

At the beginning of the year I challenged myself with the goodreads 2015 reading challenge, Goodread is a website that rates and reviews books and since one of my ‘non-resolutions/resolution’ was to read more – wifi less I set myself to start low and read at least 15 books this year.

A bit over a month ago I received in the post Girl at War, usually I’m able to squeeze in a bit of reading each day but lately I’ve been so busy that this became solely my ‘weekend book’

As I do with movies, I usually like to read a couple of ‘non-spoiler’ reviews of the books Im about to read, specially to see if they are worth reading and when I researched Girl at War I was surprised to the amount of amazing reviews and ratings it had. Only at goodreads at least 40% gave it 4 out of 5, 30% 5 out of 5 and the rest it’s divided between the rest.

After finish reading it, I could see why. This is a well-written book that follows the story of Ana Juric, a young girl caught in the middle of the Croatian war. Her character is likeable and relatable and makes the reader feel engaged and almost protective of her as she grows. Even though is a fictional story it depict a real picture of what war really is like, but from the innocent view of a 10 and then 20 year old.

Captivatingly raw, charming while completely terrifying, the author knows how to keep us hooked throughout the story. At first I personally found it a bit slow and hard to begin but quickly found myself engaged with the story and couldn’t let it down.

Thank you to the girls at Hachette to sending me this copy. Girl at War by Sara Novic can be found in stores over New Zealand, and as for me, I can cross out another book for my reading challenge. I’m currently one book behind with 40% of the challenge completed. Do you have any books to recommend?

 

I’d like to think I’m a fairly good photographer, even though I know in my heart that my photos are 15% photography skills and 85% editing. I get amazed with some photos every time I go to a gallery, the way photographers catch a single specific moment, the way the play with light, depth, how with a single click they can create a whole story.

If you are a bit like me you will enjoy the next few days, since the Auckland Festival of photography is here. Every day until the 20th of June, renowned photographers, artists, curators and amateurs will come together in this amazing festival throughout the city.

The complete Festival program can be found here and it ranges from commissioned work, to fringe exhibitions and workshops, all of them scattered around different places in the city. In a few minutes I’ll be attending a photography workshop in the City Library, for free, and like so there are heaps of activities which are free to the public.

Share with me if you went to any of these exhibits and what were your thoughts about them. Until next time. Jules-

 

 

Barrie Bates left New Zealand in the 60s on a National Gallery scholarship, where he met other artists that would soon become pop art icons. A bleached hairstyle and trip to New York later and Billy Apple was born.

He was one the first artists to use neon art in his works, and was featured in the pivotal exhibit “The American Supermarket” together with other well known pop artist as Andy Warhol, James Rosenquist and Tom Wesselmann.

The Auckland Art gallery is currently showing one of the largest retrospective exhibition of Billy Apple’s work to date, from early pop and conceptual art to his latest investigations on advertising.

The whole curated exhibition is available until the end of june and can be access for free, if you are lucky you can even take home a free Billy Apple print that was created specially for this exhibit. (I have one myself wiii)

The exhibit itself is visually stunning and I have a few favourite pieces which I go back to see from time to time, but there is one thing for sure….. there were too many apples haha

[Spanish Version]
Barrie Bates viajo fuera de Nueva Zelanda en los años 60 habiendo ganado una beca de la National Gallery en Londres, donde conoció a otros artistas que pronto se convertirían en iconos del arte pop. Un peinado desteñido y viaje a Nueva York después y así nacía Billy Apple.

Él fue uno de los primeros artistas en utilizar luces de neón en sus obras, y fue uno de los artistas presentado en la exposición central “El Supermercado Americano”, junto con otros artistas pop más conocido como Andy Warhol, James Rosenquist y Tom Wesselmann.

Actualmente la galería de arte de Auckland está mostrando una de las exposiciones retrospectivas más grande de la obra de Billy Apple hasta la fecha, desde sus principios en el arte pop y arte conceptual hasta sus últimas investigaciones en publicidad.

La exposición está disponible hasta finales de junio y se puede acceder de forma gratuita, si tienen suerte, incluso se puede llevar una impresión gratis que creo el mismo Billy Apple especialmente para esta exposición. (Yo ya tengo el mio wiii)

La exposición en sí es visualmente impresionante y tengo algunas piezas favoritas que vuelvo a ver de vez en cuando, pero una cosa es segura … .. había demasiadas manzanas jaja

Truth is… I like Fashion.
I don’t consider myself a super fashionista, always keeping up with the trends, knowing every single designers name kind of person, but wherever design is involved (industrial, interior, graphic, fashion, etc) I’m into it, that’s what I do for a living don’t I?

Still, I found myself always admiring more the “costume” side of fashion than prêt-à-porter, strange shapes, sci-fi gear, medieval or Renaissance dresses (hence my new obsession with the show Reign)

All of this, is the reason why I really wanted to go see the World of Wearable Art Expo at the Auckland Museum. World of wearable Art in an annual event were designers send their amazing creations to be judge by a panel of people and eventually rounded up in a fashion show, that I can only describe like something that came up from a dream. (don’t believe me? check the video)

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