Memory

Spaces tend to contain more than what we perceive, especially our most intimate. Often we cling to history by way of inheritance, attaching personal meaning and memory to articles left by those no longer; things given or abandoned to the physical world.

It is not by chance that these objects we collect have stories. We intentionally attach meaning to them as a way to stave off passing time and unintentional forgetfulness. This is our way of cheating death, leaving something behind. A passive aggressive time control. Realistic time travel.

The mind can only hold so many snap shots, eventually deleting due to over capacity. Often their residue resurfaces in dreams which we then transfer to the physical world.

As for me, I am a conflicted romantic. Holding on to physical memories and desiring a minimalist surrounding. I fear losing memories, even of the objects themselves. Dreams come to me only as resolve.

The built environment is created for a purpose. To not only give shelter but give shape to memory and emotion, physical form to hope.

Hope

Carl Barnett Design/Studio “Thrive”

Hope is where will begins.

The seed of possible,

nourished.

Future envisioned.

The flutter of fear,

tampered.

Poetry in Space

When art, architecture and design are intertwined poetry is sparked, igniting pure experience. This is inspiration at its highest form. Angelical exaltation. There is no comparison other than poetic verse or choir music. The emotional tug of language that delves deep into the psyche, excavating memory and uplifting the mind and body. This is the influence of the visual languages when layered. What these arenas can do.

“The interiors of Pierre Yovanovitch and Amy Lau are poetry in space, sentence structures with precisely placed commas. Rhythm and rhyme.”

The interiors of Pierre Yovanovitch and Amy Lau are poetry in space, sentence structures with precisely placed commas. Rhythm and rhyme. Their built environments exude emotion, satiating our need for visual splendor. Yovanovitch and Lau are well in-tuned within the visual and written languages. They are poets and writers in the physical realm of space and object. Every room a page, every structure a book. Both write physical experience, compose emotional rapture. They Inscribe beauty within four walls. Poets without words they each create sonnets to inhabit. Free verse that envelope and entice, nurture and uplift.

“This is physical poetry. Creative self expression. Divinity.”

The written language is a deep form of inspiration and what better way to live than within a poem. Take a verse and place it within a space and you have a Yovanotich or Lau. Objects replace words, and spaces exchange for commas. This is physical poetry. Creative self expression. Divinity.

Amy Lau ~photo by Bjorn Wallander

“These spaces are best read as novels, strings of words, passion poetry. Innate language of the fully expressed.”

To compare words with a space designed by Yovanotich or Lau is a difficult task as they are their own language. To interpret with a single word does not do them justice. They are best felt and digested. Saved within the folds of our inner landscape and savored as emotional nourishment. These spaces are best read as novels, strings of words, passion poetry. Innate language of the fully expressed. They are not merely constructed spaces but best seen as love letters to those who seek. To those who yearn, an alchemy of the romantic. Incantations. Magic.

Pierre Yovanovitch ~photo by Jośe Manuel Alorda

It is with these spaces that we are uplifted. Raised to a higher order as collective by the inspiration of language. Aspirational speech. The built environment as motivational doctrine. They give us hope in a challenged world. Open books of floral language. To inspire and to be inspired.

“These layered spaces speak volumes to those willing to listen. Those attuned to the languages of the heart, body and space.”

It is no far stretch to say that Yovanovitch and Lau are authors of aspiration, self help and gospel. To compare them to this high order may seem over reaching but dwell on these spaces and soon words flow as sonnets. Heart beat raised and spirit risen. These layered spaces speak volumes to those willing to listen. Those attuned to the languages of the heart, body and space.

Amy Lau ~Sargent Architectural Photography

Pierre Yovanovitch ~photo by Jean-Françios Jaussaud

Light

“Light is not so much something that reveals, as it is itself the revelation.”

James Turrell

Pantheon in Rome

Olafur Ellisasson Little Sun Solar Light

Light has been referenced symbolically for centuries. Revered as God sent. Art, architecture and words proclaim its majesty, tries to capture its power as firefly in jar.

James Turrell ‘Sky Space’

But light has no use for this. No interest. Entity of its own, it comes and goes, existing with and without us. Frolicking amongst the chiaroscuro landscape, it leaves us a lesson we rarely learn.

…be the light.

Review

A Free Verse Poem : Under the Night Sky at albertz benda & Friedman Benda , New York

A review for Anniversary Magazine.

Wendell Castle