Wednesday, January 01, 2014

Randomly relevant reading

As I left the house to head to the airport yesterday, I made a last-minute decision that taking a book to read during the four hours I'd be in the air was all very well and good, but would mean lugging it round all day (and less room for new books to follow me home), and so I swapped it over for an unread copy of Wallpaper* off my pile.

It turns out it was a brilliant move.
See those post it note tags? Every one marks something miniature related:

1. Scout Regalia's miniature plywood replicas of its wares on page 122.

2. Wallpaper* thoughtfully included a miniature version of the insert cover on page 1 of its Polska revealed insert. And on the opposite page there's an article about the Keret House art installation, which is 92cm wide at its narrowest point and 152 cm at its widest. Currently used as a temporary home for travelling writers, it made me think further about the directions I could take my concept for The Garrets.

3. Miniio makes an appearance on page 7 of the supplement, with their Miniko 1:6 scale dolls' house.

4. The final to pages of the supplement have some fabulous modernist houses from Warsaw, just crying out to be recreated in miniature.

5. Guest editors Elmgreen & Dragset have some interesting and thought-provoking things to say about fictional homes including 'how artists have used the domestic space: 'The style of the domestic setting can function as an indicator of social background, talk about a period of time, portray a certain taste, desire and perversion, but it can also create a psychological drama, even be used as a political statement. Or simply function as a relaxed everyday platform for social interaction...' (Sound familiar?)  Elmgreen & Dragset have created a scene in full size at the V& A in London, which made me giggle (when I wasn't peering intently at the 'architect's' models dotted around the space.)

6. And just when I thought there couldn't be more, I turned to the section guest edited by Laurie Simmons. (Name sound familiar? So it should.) Intriguingly, she's moved from working with minis into working with full-sized dolls to create scenes.

I'd recommend trying to get your hands on a copy of this issue if you're a modern miniaturist: plenty of inspiration inside!

(*That's not a 'there's more info later in the piece' asterisk, 'Wallpaper*' is the name of the magazine. So I didnt need to have this footnote at all but thought I should just in case...)

5 comments :

Pepper said...

What a fabulous magazine. I've never heard of it before =0( but can no doubt subscribe on line. Excellent scoop TSS. I'm inspired!! Get me my woodsaw

Mad For Mod said...

I've never heard of this magazine. I'll have to check into it. Thanks for the links! Happy New Year!

Véronique said...

The Keret house is brilliant! I found some plans online and it would look so cool in miniature (and save so much space) :-)
Thanks for the links!
Happy New Year!
Véronique

AMCSviatko said...

Wallpaper* is brilliant and so full of inspiration that it makes my head hurt and my mini 'to do' list blow out. Which means I often put off reading it until I'm several months behind.

Pepper: I'm worried that you plus Wallpaper* will mean you minus any sleep as you recreate all the cutting-edge goodies inside. And subscribing from within the UK is often half the cover price whereas here it's always cheaper to just pick it up at the newsagents :-(

AMCSviatko said...

My pleasure, Mad for Mod and Veronique.

Cyd: I just realised you might not be aware of MidCentury magazine either, as it's from the UK. I think it'll be right up your street: http://midcenturymagazine.com/