SpaceTM looks at photographer Joseph Eta

  
Yesterday SpaceTM featured Cameroon photographer Joseph Eta. We like his pictures so much we thought, "hell, why not show another one?!" So here it is – and if you're online, reading this in the middle of an urban jungle somewhere, then this image is especially dedicated to you. 

As Eta himself explains: “You develop a respect for nature when you grow up surrounded by it. I take photographs to help people who live in concrete worlds get a sense of what that respect feels like.”

You can buy prints of Eta's pictures here and he also has an exhibition at the Harbour Club, Chelsea, London, from February 27th.

Interview: Tenzing Rigdol

The way colour is used in our environment can have a lasting impact on our lives, as Tibetan artist Tenzing Rigdol explains.

“My childhood reminds me of my mother’s favorite colour – purple! She would have me and my younger brother all covered in purple clothes. Even the sweaters, gloves and mufflers that she arduously wove were all in purple. So the colour purple has become the colour of my childhood and I used it as the base for this painting [Mandala Of Kids, 2008, see below]. It is cold clean and innocent. I think that we all have similar traces of it.”
  

Mandala of Kids, 2008, Acrylic on canvas 136 x 134 cm (53_ x 52_ in) © Tenzing Rigdol

Five facts about Tenzing Rigdol
1. He was born in 1982 in Nepal.
2. In 2002 he and his parents were granted political asylum in the USA.
3. He is experienced in the traditional Tibetan arts of sand painting and butter sculpture.
4. He studied art and art history at the Univsersity of Colorado, USA.
5. Talking about his sculpture This Is Not A Chair he explained: “I wondered if I could change the functionality of a clearly defined object by adding other values to it. In this case, I covered the chair with Tibetan Buddhist scriptures and asked myself if this could still be a chair? Perhaps it is a chair which one cannot use to sit on, or maybe someone can sit on it while others cannot, depending on their own mental disposition.”

The Exhibition "Experiment with Forms: Tenzing Rigdol" is at Rossi & Rossi Ltd, London, from Feb 11th to March 27th 2009.

Who lives in a house like this?

As Christmas approaches it's time to think about what statement your Christmas decorations are going to make (or not) – something the English have been doing in their homes for the past 400 years, as SpaceTM's Joe discovers.

These days the festive season feels like it increasingly owes more to Americana than our individual nations' traditions. I remember when, as a child, my family moved to Canada for a year between 1979-80 and Christmas was suddenly flooded with cinnamon-infused food and hooked candy canes. I'd never experienced anything like it before, but now it's a common sight down the UK's high streets.

But what is an "authentic" Christmas style? It is something that has been continually in flux over the last 400 years, as an exhibition at London's Geffrye museum explores. Each of the museum's 11 period rooms have been decorated in keeping with their era.

If you're looking for something slightly different in your home this Christmas, perhaps these might give you some inspiration:
  

17th Century Supper

From Christmas rooms

There's something  about the mix of austere baroque detail and an almost minimalist approach to colour in this setting that really appeals to me.

Victorian Room

From Christmas rooms

It's easy to forget how radical the Victorians were with colour. There are echoes – in the mix of patterns and bold tones – found in the today's fashionable boutique hotel style (see, for example, Kit Kemp's award-winning work at the Firmdale Hotel Group which includes the Knightsbridge Hotel in London)
  

Edwardian Room

From Christmas rooms

Like the 90s grungers were happy to dispense with the ubiquitous 80s hairspray bottle, those Edwardians were gagging to get rid of Victoriana weren't they?
  

1930s Room

From Christmas rooms

Great carpet and furniture. Not sure about the pattern on the armchairs though.
  

Mid 20th Century Room

From Christmas rooms

You could recreate this look, somewhat, by going here (go for golden-brown) or here.
  

1990s Room

From Christmas rooms

I think we all know people who have houses like this!

Christmas Past is at the Geffrye Museum from November 25th till January 4th.

Interior Decor of Doom

We frequently see the interior décor of the rich and famous – after all, they are often only to happy to advertise how "tasteful" they are (or perhaps inadvertently brag about how they are not). But what about the infamous? SpaceTM's Joe investigates...
 
Below is a picture of the 20th century photographer (and one-time lover of Man Ray), Lee Miller, taking a bath in Hitler's bathtub following the end of the Second World War. It is a strange and haunting image, one that throws up some questions about Miller, but mainly Hitler himself.

From Lee Miller

David E. Scherman. Lee Miller in Hitler's bath, Hitler's Apartment, Munich, Germany 1945 © Lee Miller Archives, England. All rights reserved
  
Looking at the tiling, the furniture – even the lack of space – one can't help thinking the design is curiously utilitarian for a megalomaniac dictator. Wouldn't you expect him to have chosen something grander? And what dreadful thoughts were dreamt up in that unassuming, small space...?

See this photograph and others, along with some of the artworks she received from her extraordinary friends (Picasso, Eillen Agar etc) at "Lee Miller and Friends" at Pallant House Gallery, Chichester, UK, from January 17th to March 29th 2009.

Exhibition: Patricia Urquiola

Even if you're not a fan of ceramics it's worth going to visit the  Patricia Urquiola'sPurely Porcelain, exhibition currently at London's Design Museum. Why? Because it's an opportunity to step into the head of a designer at the height of their powers and follow the creative process, says SpaceTM's Joe.

Spanish born Urquiola is known for her love of decoration. But there's no hint of the chintzy you'll find on your Grandmother's china. With Landscape, her recent porcelain range for the manufacturers Rosenthal, she has produced exceptionally fine, translucent forms embelleshed with quasi scientific patterns that suggest a zone somewhere between frost on a window and the layout of the periodic table.

"The pattern is erratic" explains Urquiola, "sometimes filling the form at other times escaping."

What's interesting about Purely Porcelain is that the exhibition documents the entire design process, tracing the idea from concept, through prototype, to finished product. How does she go from those random moments of inspiration to the final product? Well, you see doodles scribbled over bits of paper; then experimental patterns traced onto clear plastic stuck over practice bowls; and huge moulds to create porcelain tiles...

That said, Urquiola claims: "Ceramics are less about problem solving and more about our aesthetic and emotional response to them."

Isn't this essentially the definition of all good design?

Incidentally, want to buy some of Urquiola's Landscape collection...?