Never one to miss a bandwagon, the magazine I work for is doing research for an editorial on reducing the impact our industry has on the environment. I assume the recycling bin which arrived in my studio today is relevant to this research.
The bin is essentially a bright purple flat-pack self-assembly cardboard box.
Which was contained within an unnecessarily large piece of cardboard packaging when it was delivered.
By a huge lorry.
Good to know we're doing our bit...
A historian I know through work recently discovered this curious little treasure, which he has given to me.
It's a 190 x 75mm palette of ten colourants, used for hand-colouring black and white photos.
I've been trying to find out more about it online, there's a lot of information about the history of hand-colouring photos on Wikipedia, but I can't find any information specific to this particular type of palette.
I think it's English, because 'colour' is always spelled with a 'u' except where it is part of a product name. I also think it was intended for amateur/home use, rather than by professionals. What I really want to know is how old it is, but with so little evidence to hand, I can't work this out. I'm hoping something in the language (there are instructions for its use printed on the reverse) or the style of dress of the woman on the front will give me a clue as to what decade it was manufactured in. I'll continue investigating...
The Saatchi Gallery is on the move again!
Its new home at The Duke of York's HQ in Chelsea looks quite smart in the virtual tour, though the interior is quite hard to distinguish from London's other big contemporary art gallery. County Hall had a warm, homely feel, very much like walking through some rich guy's private property admiring his bizarre multi-million pound art collection - which, of course, is exactly what it was. To me the new setup appears too orderly and sterile, and I'm not sure whether the orthogonal, neutral backdrop of the new gallery might lessen the shock-factor of certain items in his collection... but I guess I'll see for myself when it re-opens in 2007.