Author: Roger Whitehouse

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Culture Design Events Everyday

Ashes and Snow and Sonotubes

Ashes and Snow

Having seen the elephant photo all over the place for some time, Saki and I hurried over to Pier 54 to have a look at Ashes and Snow for ourselves before it closed and were amazed. What most impressed was Shigeru Ban’s structure. I was expecting a pile of shipping containers with some photos on the wall. Instead I found one of the most exciting and awe inspiring spaces that New York has ever had to offer, and like the Central Park Gates project, it wasn’t around for long (it is now all being shipped to California). First of all, this thing is huge! On entering you found yourself in a fabulous, dark, ethereal, and seemingly endless cathedral space stretching a full City block out into the Hudson. While constructed of shipping containers, sonotubes, canvas, and steel cable, with a floor of wooden planks and river stones, it has all the authority and majesty of any cathedral nave you have ever visited. Truly wonderful and a must-visit if you encounter it on your travels.

The photos I was less enthusiastic about. While there is no denying that many of these images are stunning, the more I saw the more I felt uneasy about the apparently contrived posing and what to me seemed an intrusively “arty” presentation. If these had been paintings (which they nearly are) I think they would seem the epitome of Shmaltz and the fact that they are photos does not ultimately redeem them in this respect. One would love to think that the child had innocently happened upon the elephant and stopped to consider it, and that the photographer had innocently (or purposely) happened upon both. But that not being the case what we end up with seems somewhat unsubstantial.

But that’s just my opinion. Do not miss out on the chance to see for yourself.

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Everyday

It Pays to Think Things Through

Pillsbury Dough Boy being escorted into a taxi

Maybe this was the first time this hapless individual had sallied forth in his Pillsbury Dough Boy suit, but on Monday morning, despite the energetic attempts of the Pierre Hotel concierge and some passers-by to stuff him in a New York taxi, he was soon to discover that a little strategic forethought may have suggested he waited until reaching his destination before inflating.

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Everyday

At the same time, just 200 feet away…

Sculpture photo

Chinatsu Ban’s Yellow Elephant Underwear sculpture at the corner of Central Park was having its minimalist elephantine anime excrement hosed down and polished – an object strangely and pneumatically reminiscent of the Pillsbury Doughboy across the street.

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Everyday

The Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch?

photo of decorative element in ironwork

I photographed this in Chichester Cathedral last week. Perhaps the holy hand grenade is not as apocryphal as I had previously thought. For those of you who are not au fait with Python lore I provide the following relevant text from the scriptures:

A Reading from the Book of Armaments, Chapter 4, Verses 16 to 20:

“Then did he raise on high the Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch, saying, “Bless this, O Lord, that with it thou mayst blow thine enemies to tiny bits, in thy mercy.” And the people did rejoice and did feast upon the lambs and toads and tree-sloths and fruit-bats and orangutans and breakfast cereals … Now did the Lord say, “First thou pullest the Holy Pin. Then thou must count to three. Three shall be the number of the counting and the number of the counting shall be three. Four shalt thou not count, neither shalt thou count two, excepting that thou then proceedeth to three. Five is right out. Once the number three, being the number of the counting, be reached, then lobbest thou the Holy Hand Grenade in the direction of thine foe, who, being naughty in my sight, shall snuff it.”

– Monty Python, Monty Python and the Holy Grail