Wall and barricades are just the annotations, it’s the empty space that binds the builds together. Even though a road is cutting through, the overlooking park ing lot functions like a common courtyard space, with one building in front and two buildings on sides. It is a mundane space with vehicles moving in and out, most frequently in the mornings and the evenings. A painted van is often parked in the same location. Very rarely there are people loitering on the phone with either a coffee mug or a pet in hand.
Two of the mid-rise apartment buildings that are clad in bricks, typically found in Brooklyn, have nar row windows and air conditioners protruding out. The third building is oddly finished in grey undulating sur face. Knowing that the front façade of the building facing street is brick clad, the designer of the grey building may have attempted to match its facade to the surrounding only form the street perspective.
The gentle drizzling of rain has changed the view from what it was a few days ago. The foliage of the tree which covers up most of the view has been washed clean off dust and appears more greener and afresh. The barren soil bed between the parking area and one of the buildings is filled with tiny shrubs. The black stains stretch longer from the window sill on the grey building.
Looking up from the ground, I see that I have missed some activity in the sky that left a white foggy trail behind!
Every mass settlement has an origin. It begins with a small region that passes through numerous phases, from moderate influxes to intensive surges in population that leads to formation of cities. In the photograph clicked by Karl Blossfeldt, the pointed petals near the stem of ‘Cirsi um Canum’ are arranged like buildings that are planned within a specified grid while the strands above resemble unorganized urban growth. This entire bulb becomes a ‘Core’ or the main city.
The ‘Core’ starts to burgeon chaotically. The growth is rapid, reaching a phase of upheaval, leading to suffocation and spatial crisis. Some of them might be deprived of re sources and supplies. The ‘Core’ city has reached the stage of saturation. There is a need of new a origin to share the load. The ‘Catch’ or new origins sprout around the ‘Core’. They can be one or more in number. They can be synon ymous to the core or inherit their features. The buds of ‘Cirsium Canum’ are connected to each other with a strong stem that supplies nutrition. Similarly, the Catch Cities are partially dependent but attached to the ‘Core’ with robust connectivity. Brooklyn’s subway stems interconnect, but the majority lead to Manhattan. This chord also acts as a means of sharing resources.
The future of Catch and Core Cities may diverge in multiple possibilities. The Core may fade off converting one of the Catches to Core. Or the Catch may fail to develop leading to further exploitation of Core, but together they function as Cohesive Cities.
Cirsium Canum, Photograpgh clicked by Karl Blossfeldt
Watch out for cars
Reserved Parking for Employees
Unauthorized vehicles towed away
No Smoking within 20 ft
After Hours Depository
Take Your Receipt
Security Alert 24 Hour Under Video surveillance
Caution kneeling Bus
No Smoking or electronic cigarette in use
One Way
Virtual Notary available
No Mask No Entry
Monday
11:30 am – 1 pm
No Standing Anytime
New York City
Department of Sanitization
Accessible
Please ring the Bell Mask Up
Active Drive way No Parking
Tap to pay Preferred Visa Fighting Food Waste Together
No Outside Food or Drink
Do not enter
Bus Lane Buses only
One person at a time
Soon
Do not Litter
We are required to ask for proof of Vaccination upon Entry
Hungry Ghost Coffee Serving Stumptown
Monday Wednesday
Fire sprinkler Location
Face Covering required
Take out
No standing anytime
Truck Loading
Monday – Friday 10am – 2pm
One person at a time
New York City is hustling twenty-four sev en. But the morning commotion is different from the evening. Compared to the rush and ‘no time to chat’ attitude in the dawn, people are loitering and social izing in the evening. Although our day starts with an enthusiasm to work, each one of us is looking for ward to the end of ‘working hours’ when we release ourselves from constraints to be maintained at work places. At times, these hours leave you happy and complacent, other times we are upset and unsatis fied. Sometimes we progress, sometimes we lag. The mixed emotions are disseminated when we share it with our friends and family as we socialize back in our homes or public spaces in the ‘afterhours’.
As the towers become tranquil, streets buzz louder. Fulton, one such street, is lined up with ca fes and restaurants. An inscription in metal at one of the junctions on Fulton says ‘After hours Depos itory’, from where an array of public spaces radiate in four directions’. The message meant for the bank customers is a call for people to come and deposit their thoughts and emotions. People tend to open themselves completely after their working time on the lively streets of New York that are abundant with places like Fulton. With the covert and the overt so cializing we realise that each one around us is sailing in the same boat. These public hotspots become an interaction hub in the ‘afterhours’ preparing us for the next challenging day.
A faded tiny poster on one of the restau rant’s partitions says ‘Fighting food waste together’. There is a logo in the center which is not the same as that of the restaurant indicating that some other organization has put it up. While it is appreciable of the restaurant owner to paste it, the poster is hardly visible from the sidewalk and should be put up as a large hoarding visible to everyone walking on the Fulton Street which is filled with eateries.
It is a fact that today any type of food is easily available anywhere compared to the times when each piece of bread had a great value and indigenous ingredients were found only in specific locations. This notion of easy obtainability is acted upon with a propensity to let go wasted. Unlike oth er resources such as clothes or gadgets that last for months and years, food has a very short span of be ing eligible to be used. We might question whether people really waste food. If we ever want to know how much food has been wasted, we should look at the dustbin rather than the plates.
The message is a significance of the ten dency of overconsumption in the present time. In the pretext of consumerism and brand competence, the overall production exceeds the need. Still the cities are never complacent with what is available, there is demand for new, unseen and upgraded products, while the unused stock keeps stacking up, many of which degrade without ever being used.
Location
Date of Visit
Time of visit
Climate
: Little Italy,Manhattan
: 16th October, 2021 : 6:24 pm
: Light rain, cold winds
I found a corner to sit at a closed restaurant entrance. It is about to get dark. It’s raining lightly. There is a larger restaurant at one and a cheese and gelato restaurant at the other. The third corner is a building under renova tion. The junction is the intersection of pedes trian and vehicular street.
Signal goes green. A red bus crosses the parks at the corner. A delivery man is speeding with large food bag.
Grey car passes. Red car. White car.
Signal turns in to red. Two boys dressed exactly walk by. Two street vendors start selling jewelry items in silver.
A short man with geometric colorful print
with a gelato in his hand is walking across the street. Three women with multiple bags are crossing on other side.
A car with loud Punjabi music.
A girl starts grooving.
Other friends are munching gelato.
Half open car with loud music crosses.
A heavily dressed man with chains comes out and starts taking to a per son in the restaurant.
Two women are buying a gelato across. Four middle aged men came out of the attached shop and are talking very loudly while crossing.
The restaurant quarrels with jeweler own er. The crowd blocks front view of street.
Signal goes red. Street clears.
A man balancing basketball on his head is cycling and starts circling at the junction. Grabs attention. Signal goes green. A yellow taxi drops
two ladies and a man.
White car.Grey Car.
Group of women walking with umbrella. One is having a gelato.
Signal goes red.
The cycling man comes back, now with a pumpkin, starts circling again. Three teen agers dress like 80’s rock band with gelato walk by.
Red. Green. Gelato. Teenagers.
Denim fabric, which is woven with threads dyed in indigo and white, was first made in Nimes, France. It was called “Serge de Nimes”, which later changed to “de Nimes” - “denim”. The fabric became popular after it was used to make jeans designed for miners and laborer’s who required a robust material that doesn't tear off easi ly.
For the millennial generation wearing a denim garment was a sign of being ‘cool’. The bluish texture was a strikingly different room, the ideal material used in suits and trousers. Denim clothes were worn by pop stars and young teenagers. Anything made with denim was con sidered fashionable. Denim has transformed from thick, sturdy and heavy fabric to thin stretchable and light weight. Yet does not match up to the delicateness of sat in; one could hardly picture a wedding gown made with denim. People imagine Denim is a rough material and not an object beauty. Its texture is more about being rough rather than shiny and flamboyant. The more rustic it be comes the better it looks.
Today the fabric has been labeled as a causal material. Unlike velvet, silk or leather found in specific luxurious items, denim is found in everyday objects. One would not prefer to wear clothes made of denim on spe cial occasions as it will be considered as underdressed.
Therefore, denim as a material have had contradictory misconceptions through the timeline. It was considered as an exceptional fabric while today when it has become a usual fabric. Still misbelief and assumptions has favored to make the denim a time fabric and preferred choice for many clothing brands.
Objects become antiques when they are not being used and degraded uniquely. The ex travagant rides at Coney Island appear like pieces in a museum as one could only view and imag ine the experience over ‘The Solitary Eagle’ or the ‘Cyclone’ or the ‘Parachute'. Their magnificence astounds you even when they are motionless.
One such ride is embellished with bold multi-colored text ‘Carousel’. Wrapped in a shiny grey sheet, the cylindrical structure stands inactive on the boardwalk of Coney Island. Unlike other rides one cannot see the actual carousel but guess because of its shape.A carousel is always associat ed with joyous moments, like childhood memories or precious moments spent with loved ones. They are not just about a tumultuous ride but also about how we see the surroundings moving around us and air blowing on our face. This carousel hardly seems to be able to fulfill the joy.
World crises and concerns of security have limited and changed the way we experience the Carousel or places like Coney Island itself. More than that, people's idea of enjoyment has changed drastically as a result of digitization. Virtuality is su perior to reality. The caged carousel or the deacti vated island have become a place to show rather than venturing them. They only become posts on our social media accounts for the next few hours rather than memories that last forever. They may remain as museum objects forever.
The message behind the paint ing ‘Many Mansions’ by Kerry James Mar shall is as convoluted as its composition. The cheerful atmosphere contrasts with the grim stature of the three men. One standing at the center is gazing myste riously as if he is warning the viewer, the other two men are deeply engrossed in their work. Dressed sophisticatedly in black and white, they appear confident yet filled with anguish and sorrow.
The text over the red ribbon atop the painting is partially modified from the original line ‘In my father’s house there are Many ‘Mansions’ (John 14:2) that also includes the name of the painting.
The painting is one amongst the five of ‘Garden series’. The flower beds are arranged in a rectangular grid and the man sitting on the ground appears to be grieving so one could elucidate the surrounding as a graveyard instead of a garden. Contrastingly the blue birds and the toys wrapped in the gift basket indi cate the commencement of happy times. The tacit revelations like flowers com posed in the letters ‘SG’ hints at the lo cation of a housing project that failed to suffice the occupants. At times Marshall obscures the details like the bouquet with flowers hiding the text over the
white board other times he mentions the official registration number of Stateway Gardens in bold red. The distant project towers look blank, dead; the earth seems to bleed.
The curve shaped of the shad ows of the three men does not match that of a human figure. Its color merges with the shade of pants worn by three human figures. Purpose might be to min imize the number of colors in the palate creating a composition of dark patches throughout the painting and keeping the overall appearance dull.
‘Although it is full of details that suggest the realities of urban life, Many Mansions also reveals a sense of commu nity.(Hughes). The spirit of hope, togeth erness and self sufficiency is embedded in the painting. Have found joy in the un pleasant conditions.
The dressing style, the buildings and the ‘pretty’ gardens were the extrav agances that were affordable to eco nomically privileged society, that most of the African American community were deprived of, at the time the painting was made. It was assumed that this lifestyle was unattainable for them. Still the scars of past iniquity will stay forever.
Many Mansions , Kerry James Marshall
Mr. Head awakened to discover that the room was full of moonlight. He sat up and stared at the floor boards—the color of silver—and then at the ticking on his pillow, which might have been brocade, and after a second, he saw half of the moon five feet away in his shaving mirror, paused as if it were waiting for his permission to enter. It rolled forward and cast a dignifying light on every thing. The straight chair against the wall looked stiff and attentive as if it were awaiting an order and Mr. Head’s trousers, hanging to the back of it, had an almost noble air, like the garment some great man had just flung to his servant.
The wind was strong enough to push a half-filled glass of water, spilling water all over the floor and breaking his sleep. He couldn’t get rid of the yellow pills even at 2.36 am as they glowed even brighter like stars in the moonlight. They were to be consumed every night but it was the memories, not the medicine that had kept him alive ever since he was diagnosed with the disease. The dizziness prevented him from walking up to the cupboard, browsing through the photo albums to immerse himself in the past.
Sectional elevation of Grove Heights by Jean Nouvel Architects
For many Architects design begins with nature. Jean Nouvel adapted this prin ciple for the competition entry titled ‘Grove Heights’. The proposal is a luxury housing project with offices and retail for a site in Mi ami. Each floor appears like a limitless view in a forest.
One of the ideas behind the concept was to ‘make the pleasure total’ and ‘forget the neighbors’. The elevational drawing is filled with multiple layers of trees as if there is no end but the sectional drawing on the left side assures that the trees sit on the edge of the facade. The trees on the bottom are darker than the ones on the facade emphasiz ing on the vegetation on the ground and the Facade .The project description states Grove Heights park marries cascades of water with vegetation native to the Grove’.
A viwer could hardly imagine so many trees even in a landscape plan. But the drawing justifies Nouvels vision of groves. With almost a hundred trees collaged togeth er not a single one appears to be repeated. Although it is difficult to recognize the spe cies, we can identify the palm trees giving a coastal vibe. Few patches over the elevation do not shape like trees, appearing like creep ers crawling over the facade. Nature invades the building.
Relation between image and text is reversible. An image needs an explanation whereas text needs illustration to be specific or the con clusions are vague. One could draw multiple meanings from the text. Twenty four people created strikingly different sketch referring to text of Mr. Head’s story in Tony Morrison’s ‘Invisible Ink’ as a part of a fiction extension. Five people wrote different text explanations for the drawings presented in Sylvis’s essay on trees.
Text and image can change the other’s mean ing. The beauty of ‘Cirsium Canum’ captured by Karl Blossfeild transforms into a theory of ‘Cohesive cities’. Biology changes to Architec ture. The text and the image are not directly related to each other yet elucidates one other.
There is alway one, either the text or the image that dominates. One always expounds more than the other. What dominates depends on what comes first or the content. Kerry James Mar shall’s paintings are so powerful that any text explanation will fall short or remain incomplete to convey the emotions embedded in the paint ing. In George Perec’s ‘Objects Mythologies’ he describes DS 19 with utmost precision and nui sance that the reader can feel and imagine the beauty of the car and what it means to the world.
Togetherness
Image and text together make a hypothesis more believable. They support each other. The visual and experiential description better ex plains the aura at Coney Island when put togeth er. One could perceive the tranquil surroundings of Boardwalk in the post pandemic times.
Hughes, Alison. "Kerry James Marshall's Many Mansions." School Arts, vol. 105, no. 4, Dec. 2005, pp. 29+. Gale Academic OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/ A139431060/AONE?
“Grove Heights.” Ateliers Jean Nouvel, www.jeannouvel.com/en/projects/groveheights/.