Lutz Bacher

In Lutz Bacher's current exhibition, Black Beauty, the ground floor galleries of the ICA in London are filled with the textures and sounds of blackness. Coal dust crunches under foot and, through a curtain darkly, vibrations of the unknown oscillate in our reality. A fractured mirror reflects a self shattered by darkness and all is framed by the repetition of the final lines from A Midsummer's Night's Dream '...if by chance we shadows have offended...'

Upstairs, all is golden. A horse spins on its plinth as at a fairground carousel, while, next door, an elaborate game of chess is set up with Elvis countering a camel.  It turns out that heaven is easily accessed by a flight of stairs.  We have passed through the black skin of night to a new and brighter reality as the camel passes through the eye of a needle.

Installation shots Lutz Bacher: Black Beauty

25 September - 17 November 2013

Institute of Contemporary Arts, London

Photographs: Mark Blower

Stephen Lawrence Prize Winners in P.E.A.R.

many congratulations to AY Architects who have won the 2013 Stephen Lawrence Prize for their Montpelier Community Nursery in Camden.  AY Architects will be contributing to the forthcoming issue of P.E.A.R., which is coming soon...
In the meantime, here are a few images of the nursery, which sits so happily in its garden context, facilitating the indoor-outdoor play that is central to children's learning.
Lucky kids.

all photographs: Nick Kane

photograph: Daniel Stier

 drawing: AY Architects in collaboration with Michiko Sumi