Farewell London

It's time to say goodbye, 20 Churton.

Ai Wei Wei

A stormy morning. By the Thames at the Albion Gallery, in the wavy complex designed by Foster came our first encounter with the works of Ai Wei Wei. In China and beyond, Ai Wei Wei becomes a figure representing Chinese avant-garde. His fame escalated after he collaborated with Herzog de Meuron on designing Beijing's Olympic Stadium.

Nothing rebellious like his former pieces. Bamboos, a symbol of old tradition and new construction, stood in an architectural fashion that lure spectators into the heart of an abstract scaffolding. Perhaps the empty chairs in the air signify Ai's attempt to immortalise the workers in the age of massive construction. Perhaps they represent the sense of loss for traditional China. We will have another chance to see his work at Venice Biennale in two weeks of time.

Danish Architecture

Two venues, one subject: Danish sustainable architecture - one of the 28 Embassies Project exhibitions of London Festival of Architecture 2008. While "sustDANEable" showcased models, videos and drawings of various Danish sustainable projects in the embassy's parking garage; Co-evolution, the winner of Venice Biennale 2006, exhibited interesting Sino-Danish collaboration on sustainable urban development in four Chinese cities: Xian, Beijing, Shanghai and Chongqing, in an old college building by the Thames.

"SustDANEable" exhibition at the Danish Embassy

Co-evolution: Sino-Danish sustainable urban development in China

Model of the Magic Mountains project in Chongqing

Detour

Just want to share with you. As part of London's architecture festival, Detour, a multimedia exhibition performed through a traditional peepshow in an old mansion, introduces 18 architectural structures along some of the most picturesque national tourist routes in Norway. Not the best design show, but a great promotion for the Norwegian natural beauty.


Detour from K F C on Vimeo.

Battersea Power Station

A well-known (but abandoned) building designed by Giles Gibert Scott, who was also the architect for Bankside Power Station (now the Tate Modern). The Battersea Power Station is probably one of the most iconic buildings along the Thames, and for many, including me, it's one of the most beloved structures in the city. It has become a favorite spot for amateur photographers, a cultural icon as it has appeared in works of many artists, film makers (Hitchcock and many others) and in MTV and on record covers of rock bands (such as Beatles, Pink Floyd, etc.), and a controversial site for real estate redevelopment. Architect Rafael Vinoly was hired a year or two ago, and recently he has presented his masterplan (N attempts to revitalize this site of collective memory since the early 80s), which involves renovation of the brick building and a new skyscraper and mix use complex alongside. New apartments, shops, hotel, bars, and offices would certainly transform the badly deteriorated architectural icon into a feast for real estate developers. Whether his proposal can balance the taste of politicians, the greed of the developers and the heart of the public, we will soon find out.

Street Art, London 2008

Tate Modern, June to now

Waterloo Taxi Tunnel, May

Street Art has been a big hit in London in the past two months. First street artists from all around the world came to transform a taxi-parking tunnel at the Waterloo Train Station into a huge public gallery. Then the Tate Modern came along to hold a special exhibition on street art and provide its massive brick facade for gigantic pieces made by internationally renounced street artists. If there hasn't been Banksy in the past few years to stir up the controversy, how differently will the public and the mass media evaluate these great and often meaningful works that they once call graffiti?

An Unfinished Video

Unfinished video, December 2007, London.

Cafe du Hong Kong from K F C on Vimeo.

One Thousand Year of Solitude

Longprayer, a sound installation in the Lighthouse at Trinity Buoy Wharf, east of London. If everything goes as planned, the piece will last for exactly 1000 years.

With a computer program continuously editing the original, an audio recording of a 20-minute Tibetan prayer has been playing without stoppage and repetition since 1st January, 2000, and will continue to do so until the last day of 2999.

We visit the lighthouse as part of the London Festival of Architecture last Sunday. Trinity Buoy Wharf, including the lighthouse and container cities, was used as an exhibition ground to house several installations and architectural exhibitions.

* * *

Infinite blue sky. Endless moving clouds. Curvy silhouette of the window panes. A dreamy and laid back afternoon. Trembling reverberations of the Tibetan singing bowl in a surreal interior of the lighthouse did something funny to my sense of time, as if the very moment could last forever, as if within a second a thousand years had gone by. Subconsciously my imagination jumped through 992 years to the end of 2999, searching for whoever may be present at the same spot, in the lantern room of the Trinity Buoy Lighthouse, across the Thames from North Greenwich, east of London, listening to the grand finale of Longprayer, probably at a rainy night. In a thousand years of time, will the Thames still run in front of the Trinity Buoy Wharf? Will the only lighthouse of London still standing? Unlikely.


Eternity from K F C on Vimeo.

Dummies

A Sunday afternoon in spring. An empty arcade in the city. A few dummies in the absolute silence.

Spring

Spring 2008, London.

Spring from K F C on Vimeo.

Winter 2007

My first posting. A clip.
Winter 2007/08, London.

Winter from K F C on Vimeo.