Re:Surgo! Berlin
One of two spaces run by the Swedish-French printscreen duo Christian Gfeller and Anna Hellsgård. Gfeller and Hellsgård have been working together since 2001, creating and producing prints, artists' books, sculptures and zines across both Berlin and Stockholm. The space itself is used as a studio and to display their own work alongside works and publications from local artists, as well as serving as an exhibition and launch space. I was lucky enough to visit their studio in Berlin last summer and already being a fan of screenprinting, their enthusiasm and commitment and to what they loved was something that really resonated with me.
Valentino
Valentino Clemente Ludovico Garavani, simply known as Valentino, is a world renowned Italian fashion designer. I have always loved his work and his more recent collections have been, for me, awe inspiring. The intricacy and delicacy in his designs is simply incredible and the dresses above from his Pre-Fall 2015 collection heavily influenced a publication I made in May 2015.
Antifurniture
Antifurniture, in their own words, are 'a mobile bookstore and image research lab'. They consists of a simply website and an instagram, which is where the majority of their content is posted. They collect together miscellaneous materials, ranging from prints and sculptures to photographs, books and furniture, and post details of the artist as a way of inspiring others. I have followed their instagram closely for several months now and I always find something of note.
Josef Albers
Josef Albers was a German-American artist and educator. Best known for the hundreds of abstract paintings and prints that make up his work 'Homage to the Square', he was also an accomplished designer, photographer, typographer and printmaker. His teachings, at the Bauhaus school in Germany and at the Black Mountain College and Yale University in the United States formed the basis of some of the most influential and far-reaching art education programs of the twentieth century. Colour is a fascinating area for me personally and I love both his work and the many papers he wrote on the interaction of colour.
Katie Paterson
Katie Paterson is a Berlin-based visual artist from Glasgow. Her work crosses many different mediums but most often takes the forms of sculpture or performance art and concerns the solar system and our position in the universe. The above work for example, Timepieces (Solar System), consists of nine wall clocks that tell the time on all of the planets in our solar system, including Earth's Moon. The durations of the day ranges from planet to planet, from the shortest on Jupiter to the longest on Mercury. Each clock is calibrated to tell the time in relation to the other planets and to the time on Earth. Paterson's work inspires me to think more conceptually, outside of the sphere of 'graphic design', and consider the broad range of mediums that even simple ideas can be communicated through.
The Mezzanine
The Mezzanine is the debut novel by American author Nicholas Baker. It details 'what goes through a man's mind during a modern lunch break', in sometimes excruciating detail. The plot meanders from one thought to the next, from the upgrade of cardboard milk cartons to glass bottles, to whether shoelaces wear evenly and if they both snap at similar times. The book take a very slowed-down look at modern life and becomes almost absorbing as Baker hammers out the infinitely small details of floating paper straws and the miracles of perforation. This book is both a fascinating read and an eye-opener to the everyday things we never even think about in life, and I increasingly find myself pondering things in Baker's stream of consciousness style.