Friday, November 15, 2013

Concrete as a Medium

Last year, I attended the Savannah Symposium where UCLA Professor Dell Upton held a lecture on neglected modernity and modern architecture. He highlighted the many aspects of concrete as a commonly used medium in our architecture and it's cultural impact on us. He read a quote by Adrian Fordy that stated, concrete is the most commonly used material on earth. This being said, it is relative to our architecture, paves the streets and sidewalks we walk on, and runs through the underground systems of our cities.

Similarly, contemporary artists have been using concrete in their works as a way to cut costs and pay homage to this very relative material.

Yesterday afternoon while reading emails, I came across an article from Trendland about a Stockholm based designer names David Taylor who works with a conglomerate of materials, the most common one being concrete, styled along side metals such as steel, and brass. After silver prices rose after his studies ended in 1999, David began to experiment with concrete, steel and brass and manipulated them in a way to make them look more expensive and upscale than one could imagine.

I personally love the look of brass and steel. Theres something about the roughness and grunge aspect of it when mixed with concrete, that can be very modern. David's contemporary pieces can be viewed below and at his website, http://www.superdave.se




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