1.
'One night in the mid-1790s the architect Etienne-Louis Boullée took a walk in the forest at full moon. Suddenly he noticed his own shadow moving among those of the trees. ‘What did I see?’ he wrote in his memoirs. ‘A mass of objects detached in black against a light of extreme pallor. Nature seemed to offer itself, in mourning, to my sight.’ Boullée began to imagine an architecture of naked walls, ‘stripped of every ornament ... light-absorbing material should create a dark architecture of shadows, outlined by even darker shadows’.
'A taste for the monumental unadorned tombs of the Pharaohs may have been prevalent at the time but it was probably no coincidence that Boullée dreamed up his Temple of Death (c. 1795) shortly after Robespierre’s Terror had forced him to withdraw from Parisian public life. His earlier design for a Monument to Sir Isaac Newton (c. 1785) is like a giant, unadorned white balloon, about to rise skyward. The Temple of Death, in total contrast, is sunk into the ground. It looks like a photographic negative, and its ornamentation is a mere punched-out absence - a series of black, square window openings. What was new about Boullée’s design was that instead of being based on living nature it was based on nature’s fleeting, distorted image: its shadow. What Boullée imagined was a monolithic plainness, dark surfaces swaying between flatness and endless depth. More than just romantic horror vacui, this was a premonition of the plain, smooth surfaces that would embody the rationalization of space in the dawning Industrial Age.
'In the Modern Age it is usually the kaleidoscopic, shiny surfaces of the objects surrounding us that are most eloquent about our desires and fears. The indifferently plain, matt, monochrome, silent surfaces ubiquitous in modern society - industrial finishes in black, grey and anthracite; polished steel, sheets of plaster, pressed wood, plastic and aluminium; walls, streets, machines - are silently taken for granted as being neutral amid the glittering turmoil. Ever since Boullée, however, the reality has been that plain surfaces are not simply neutral objects in social space, but the very materialization of that space.' -- Jorg Heiser, Frieze
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2.
'Boullée promoted the idea of making architecture expressive of its purpose, a doctrine that his detractors termed architecture parlante ("talking architecture"), which was an essential element in Beaux-Arts architectural training in the later 19th century. His style was most notably exemplified in his 'Project for a Cenotaph for Isaac Newton', which would have taken the form of a sphere 150 m (500 ft) high embedded in a circular base topped with cypress trees. Though the structure was never built, its design was engraved and circulated widely in professional circles.
'Newton's cenotaph was designed to isolate, to reinvent, the huge movement of time and celestial phenomena. Inside, the viewer is isolated too, on a small viewing platform. Along the top half of the sphere's edges, apertures in the stone allow light in, in pins, creating starlight when there is daylight. During the night a huge and otherworldly light hangs, flooding the sphere, as sunlight. During the day, the "night effect." During the night, day.' -- The Ingoing
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3.
'Boullée’s 'Monument intended for tributes due to the Supreme Being' is an expression of the metaphorical, emotional, and symbolic aspects of the architecture’s purpose. Function, shape, setting, lighting, and even scent were all considered in an effort to realize the unique character of the monument within a defined aesthetic environment. Boullée believed that a building’s “character” should be poetic and evoke an appropriate feeling in those who experienced it. For example, the strong use of symmetry in his drawing – not only in the buildings, but in the pyramid-shaped mountain as well – is intended as an image of clarity, order, and perfection. The monument thus becomes a metaphor for the divine nature of the Supreme Being. In a passage of his treatise Boullée also describes the setting for this monument:
… the whole would be decorated with all that is most beautiful in nature; the buildings would be mere accessories, the base of the repository formed by a superb open-sided Temple crowning the mountain top. The Temple precincts would consist of fields of flowers exuding their sweet smell like incense offered to the Divine Being… This beautiful place would be the image of all that ensures our well-being; it would fill our hearts with a sense of joy and would be for us a true earthly Paradise.' -- James Wehn, My Art Canon
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4.
Slideshow
Dan Graham's 'From Boullee to Eternity'
3D animation: Boullee's Library
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5.
'Boullée's ideas had a major influence on his contemporaries, not least because of his role in teaching other important architects such as Jean Chalgrin, Alexandre Brongniart, and Jean-Nicolas-Louis Durand. Some of his work only saw the light of day in the 20th century; his book Architecture, essai sur l'art ("Essay on the Art of Architecture), arguing for an emotionally committed Neoclassicism, was only published in 1953. The volume contained his work from 1778 to 1788, which mostly comprised designs for public buildings on a wholly impractical grand scale.
'Boullée's fondness for grandiose designs has caused him to be characterized as both a megalomaniac and a visionary. His focus on polarity (offsetting opposite design elements) and the use of light and shadow was highly innovative, and continues to influence architects to this day. He was "rediscovered" in the 20th century.' -- Helen Rosenau
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6.
'In Peter Greenaway's 1987 film The Belly of an Architect, the main character Stourley Krackite is not only obsessed with celebrating an architect (Etienne-Louis Boullee) who never finished a building, but he is also consumed with representations of the body part whose rebellion will lead to his eventual demise: his belly. Kracklite photocopies the stomachs of representations of architectural greats (the emperor Hadrian, Boullee) and draws his ailments in order to illustrate his pain for his doctors. Kracklite’s fascination with Boullee seems appropriate in that it mirrors his own creative impotence; in the scene in which Kracklite catches Caspasian in the act with his wife, one cannot tell if he is enraged because his conjugal property is being stolen, or because Caspasian is using his model of a Boullee lighthouse as an enlarged surrogate phallus.
'The fact that his two image obsessions somewhat mirror each other in form (as the repeated form in Boullee’s sketches is a dome quite reminiscent of Kracklite’s bloated belly) marries his creative life and impending death and solidifies the reality that it is likely Kracklite will go the way of Boullee and die without many major constructions to carry his image forward into the future.' -- Caitlin Mae Verite
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p.s. Hey. Okay, we have a winner. Also, I've decided that one contestant's entry deserves a special jury prize. I will announce these winners' names below. But first, here are the correct signers/ answers:
1. Tom Cruise
2. Sade (Marquis de ...)
3. Jay Leno
4. David Letterman
5. Angelina Jolie
6. George Armstrong Custer
7. Napoleon
8. John Cage
9. Burt Bacharach
10. Robert Englund 'Freddy'
11. Lukas Haas
12. Kyle Maclachlan
13. Charlie Parker
14. Charles Manson
15. Princess Diana
16. David Foster Wallace
17. Grant Austin Taylor
18. PJ Harvey
19. Hitler
20. Mick Jagger
21. Robert Plant
22. Jay Z
23. Jensen Ackles
24. John Waters
25. James Joyce
26. Lady Gaga
27. Michael Jackson
28. Miley Cyrus
29. Trent Reznor
30. JK Rowling
31. Salman Rushdie
32. Sylvester Stallone
33. Thelonious Monk
34. Bob Dylan
35. Federico Fellini
36. John Goodman
37. Jimmy Carter
38. Mickey Mouse
39. Al Pacino
40. Charles Aznavour
So, first, I am awarding a special jury prize for innovation and audacity to ... Plexus! Congrats, P. Your prize is the same one that goes to the official winner: I will make a blog post about you or about anyone or anything you request. Name it. Now, here is my tally of the contestants' correct guesses: Plexus, 2. David Ehrenstein, 1. Bernard Welt, 13. Oscar B, 5. Eli Jurgen, 11. Colin, 1. Misanthrope, 2. The Dreadful Flying Glove, 20. _Black_Acrylic, 1. Inthemostpeculiarway, 2. Renaud Cerqueux, 19. Thus, if my calculations are the correct, the winner is ... The Dreadful Flying Glove! Congrats, oh mighty TDFG. I think you know what your prize is. Please collect it at your earliest convenience by telling me who I will making a blog post about on your behalf. Thanks to everybody who gave the quiz a shot. Now, I am dead sick at the moment with a monster of a cold and have been since about midday Saturday. My brain is fuzzy and mostly toast, my face is leaky and sniffling and coughing, I'm aches and pains central, and my energy level is very lower rung. I'm going to try to do the p.s. today as a kind of challenge to myself or something. But it's going to be pretty crappy whether I know it or not, I promise. Hopefully, today is my cold's peak because that would make sense logically. Tomorrow I'll be sprightlier. Or I'm counting on that. ** Plexus, Hey, Ebag. Congratulations again from the me who is wandering through the thick fog of my thoughts in search of what to say to you, ha ha. Uh, yeah. Wow, this p.s. is really going to suck. Anyway, did you arrive back on shore okay? (I just saw 'Piranha 3D' so ... ) What post do you want? Oh, soup, yum. You know what soup I crave, although it isn't hot, is gazpacho. Mmmmm. I'd better keep moving. Lots of congested love. ** Allesfliesst, She would at least have gotten Napoleon maybe. Wow, what you wrote about your process/ voice is really beautiful even through the walls of my brain's current prison. Hopefully, we can talk more about this when I can think again. Thank you much in the meantime. ** Chris Cochrane, Hey. Oh, uh, I guess it was under wraps for the last few weeks. That's what that phone call I mentioned with Mr. Cox was about. Before that, I knew nothing. Yeah, Wednesday ... hopefully we can almost everything nailed down then. ** David Ehrenstein, He was married to Margot Kidder? Yikes! Oh, your Franzen FaBlog is just magnificent, David! Deep respect. Everyone, David Ehrenstein has a totally masterful, must-read post about the exceedingly overrated and hyped up Jonathan Franzen on his FaBlog, and I urge you so very strongly to check it out, if you haven't. ** Scunnard, I am a drain through which every available liquid is pouring. Oh, you'll be near Jaures? That's, like, 8 or so minutes walk along the canal from where I live. My favorite movie theater is by there. Cool. So meeting up should be super easy. Give me a heads up when you're coming or are here. I can shoot you my mobile phone number if you like. Do I have your current email address? ** Pilgarlic, Lots of green tea with lemon. Juice. Vinegar plus water. French aspirin. Maxilase. Blah blah blah. We'll see. Thanks! Aw, I miss 'King of the Hill'. Dang. Enjoy the southernmost South, my friend. ** Bernard Welt, You did pretty good. Where do I find this stuff? I mean *find*? Uh, in my head then hopefully on the internet or vice versa. Beats me, really. Ha ha, yes, being the *finder* I am, of course I did know about Justin Taylor's escort ad. He's complicated. ** Shai W. Thanatos, As should you. ** Sypha, Hm, yeah, I guess since books were the biggest entertainment industry back then maybe they were longer in order to fill the otherwise empty cultural void of people's lives? I shouldn't analyze when sick. That is truly weird about 'La Bas'. ** Statictick, Geez, N. First, thank you a lot for filling me in. I'm kind of too hazed out to know what to sat except that I'm glad you've got two Plan Bs, and know that when I'm not using them to blow my nose, my fingers are crossed only for you, my pal. ** Alan, Hey, Alan. Yeah, please do let me know what's been going on with you depressingly this summer, okay? As you care, so do I. Man, so awesome that you're heading into the tweaking and blank-filling stage. That stage is my immediate goal at the moment, so I know how at least semi-relieving that must feel. Oh, let me forefront that comment you found re: Colin's post. Thanks, Alan. Everyone, Alan found a very late arriving comment on Colin's recent Perlongher Day that I missed and you probably missed too. Since it forms a nice addition to the post, I'll reprint it here: 'Hi there Colin! I also translate Perlongher. In fact Steve Dolph contacted me some years back and I sent him some of my translations. Take a look here, where i put a few online. There is a longer essay linked from that where I ramble on about doing the translation and thinking about Perlongher's work. Cheers! Liz Henry, Composite - Tech & Poetics, http://bookmaniac.org/' ** JW Veldhoen, Right? As in no kidding, right? I'm sick, and you rule. ** Oscar B, Nice shot there, pal. I hope I didn't accidentally give you my cold. You all right? I'll call you to say hey and set the plans for the movie premiere tomorrow night a bit later. ** Eli Jurgen, Hey. Not bad at all. Special congrats on getting Jay Z. I thought that one might flummox everybody. Sly Stone too, actually. Wow, I just looked hazily at your conspiracy death theory page, and I love it! Even through my muddy glasses known as eyes. Everyone, the awesome artist and d.l. Eli Jurgen has made, in his words, 'a conspiracy theory website for my own death which you can see. I stole the design from the Heaven's Gate website!' and it's killer, so click that. I'll go find your Hanson-ish video after my next cup of tea kicks in. Oh, in my experience, some artists can/do talk the theory talk about their work and others don't. About 50-50, depending on what art school they went to. Definitely no need to be able to talk that talk. I did hear about the quake, of course, and thought of you. With a name like Christchurch, well, ... nuff said, I guess. ** Steevee, Surely it's just your glasses' prescription falling behind your eyesight, but let me know what the doc says. ** David, William Hurt briefly, I guess. ** Syreearmwellion, From one sick dude to another, a high, surgically-gloved five. Sorry to hear that. So, it sounds like you'll have decent time to write while in Seattle, no? I'm still waiting for my hard copy of 'Inferno' to arrive in the mail, but, yeah, no doubt it's fantastic. Safe trip to the northwest if I don't talk to you before. ** Colin, Hey. The second 'selected poems' volume -- 'Cultural Affairs in Boston' -- is well worth getting too. Then you'll have almost everything by him up to his very late poems. ** Misanthrope, Some artists do work like that and very successfully, they just don't have cameras trained on them at the time. An SPD? Hm, yeah, I guess it's time for one, isn't it. Any ideas? Tell me. Everyone, any ideas for the theme of the next Self-Portrait Day? I need a theme. Help us out. Uh, okay, I'm sick and fairly brainless so take my advice with a grain of salt, etc., but, naturally, I think your cash out and work on your writing for a while idea is an excellent idea, as you can surely imagine. ** Marcus Whale, Hey, Marcus. Oh, the text comes from this blog, actually. It was part of a post. Bradford read it, and it inspired the song 'Helicopter', and he asked me if he could print the piece in the new Deerhunter album, and of course I'm totally honored and said yes. Bradford actually used to hang around on this blog a lot and post comments here fairly frequently in the early days, so you could say that he and I go way back, I guess. How are you, man? ** The Dreadful Flying Glove, One more big congrats! You won it by a nose. How the hell did you get Miley Cyrus? That blows my mind. Anyway, what post do you want. Tell me, and it will be yours. Unfortunately, I'm much sicker now than when last we typed, but I'm really hoping today is the hump. ** Tigersare, Hi, Guy. Man, glad the gig with Xiu Xiu went so well, muddy sound or not, and that you got to hang with him. Of course no big whatsoever about not bringing me up. Dude, I'm so going to find that Xiu Xiu clip co-starring you if it's the last thing I do, ha ha. Yeah, pretty fucking cool to have my text in Deerhunter's context, and it's such a good song. Thanks for the well wishes, pal. ** Bill, Fuck knows about that Rushdie autograph. There was no explanation. It just was. Weirdness. I'm feeling worse, but my eyes are looking for the stars. Oh, cool, the video, thank you! Heck, I'll embed the fucker, why not? And the Blake Butler one too. Everyone, see those videos embedded down below? The first one is a short excerpt from a recent live performance by the masterful musical and visual artist plus d.l. Bill Hsu and two other musicians in Amsterdam, and the second is the very same Bill Hsu's video destruction of Blake Butler's great novel 'Scorch Atlas'. Watch both. It's imperative. I'll come back and watch them as soon as my mind resurfaces. Thanks a lot, Bill! ** Paul Joseph, Hi, Paul. Glad you made it and are settled. Ah, yes, St. Marks ... what I wouldn't give were it to magically appear over here. Have classes begun? How are they? Sorry to be so brief. I'm down with a cold and gradually fading, but it's great to see you, and I look forward to your being around. ** _Black_Acrylic, Hey, Ben. Glad to hear you're planning to head back into the job routine. I think you're right about getting out and just doing. I just tried to read your blog piece/review, but I'm too out of it. Later for sure. Everyone, _Black_Acrylic aka the ultra-fine artist, writer, and editor Ben Robinson reviewed a recent art show at DCA, and it's here, and do check it out. Best day possible to you, Ben. ** Killer Luka, Better than Angelina Jolie's?! ** Pisycaca, Hi, Montse! Ugh, I'm pretty sick today. It sucks. Yury's doing very fine and dandy though, happily. How's Xet? I can't tell if I'm nearing the end of my novel or not. Ideally, yes, within a few months, but I'm being cautious. 'Homme au Bain' opens here on the 22nd. I'm kind of nervous, ha ha. And tomorrow night is the Premiere, and so I'll get to see exactly what it is then. Yeah, that Argentina vacation of yours can't come soon enough. So very long deserved. Love to you, M. ** Renaud Cerqueux, Hey, Renaud! You came so incredibly close to winning, wow. I wish that had been Jean Giono's signature. Anyway, thanks a lot. You good? What's new? ** Inthemostpeculiarway, Hey. Daria, Princess Diana, what's the difference, right? In a perfect world. Uh, I don't if they're crazed fan boys because I click their windows off as soon as they pop up. Maybe. Maybe it's the IRS. I hope you don't get sick. Sick sucks, let me tell you first hand. I liked 'P3D' too, all in all. Shue's son ... I don't know. For me, he had that almost but not quite thing going on, sort of like that main actor in 'Roswell'. Your drunken visit with your friend sounds pretty fun. Uh, I'm fading. I'm losing it. So, I'll just say I liked your weekend from top to bottom because that's absolutely the truth, and now I'll stumble briefly through my weekend, which won't take very long. Saturday, I felt worse and worse. I went out and bought my weekend's food and cigarettes before I got too sick. Then I think I just kind of did whatever and felt bad all day then slept. When I woke up on Sunday, I felt a little better although my lower back had started hurting a lot, a cold-related thing, I guess. I worked on my novel for a couple of hours, and then I started getting sicker. Yury made me a bunch of teas and remedies and things. I ditzed around on the computer mostly in a spaced out fashion. I blew my nose and coughed a million times. I watched something on TV. I can't remember what. It was about ancient Rome. I ate stuff and smoked a little less than usual and really not much at all. It was just hour upon hour of feeling bad and trying to distract myself. Went to bed. Slept shittily. That was all. Sorry about that. Today's report will probably suck a lot too. Cheer me up with your Monday report, please? ** Michael_karo. Hey. Yeah, got your email, thank you a ton, got the thing all set up, and I just need to write to you with the launch date, which I will. Yeah, what you sent is prettier than shit, thank you! ** I'm glad that's all of you because that's all of me. I'll go be a sick person now. I've been wanting to do a post on Boullee's tombs forever, and I finally did. Have good Mondays. See you tomorrow.
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