Samuel Chamberlain Award at Marblehead Festival of Arts 2010

Some twelve years ago when we were new to Marblehead, I strolled Washington Street in Old Town and noticed an irresistible little book in the window of the local used book store. It was a thin, hardbound collection of black and white photography entitled Old Marblehead by Samuel Chamberlain. 

I dashed inside the shop and thumbed through the book’s yellowed, diminutive pages from 1940 and discovered that the brick building I had been calling home was once owned by a sea captain who “commanded the boat which rowed Washington across the Delaware,” and, “It is said to contain an authentic McIntire mantel.” My building and its street, captured in black and white, covered in snow, in what must have been the late 30s, was nearly unchanged. It was as if time had grabbed me by my collar and shown me my place in the continuum. 

Thus was my first encounter with the “American Landmarks” series from Hastings House, featuring the photography and writing of Marblehead’s Samuel Chamberlain, who originally trained as an architect at MIT before becoming a successful printmaker, photographer and author. It was also the first I had heard of Salem’s famed architect and woodcarver Samuel McIntire. I’ve gone on to collect a number of autographed Chamberlain books and to peruse several McIntire carvings and buildings.

Stumbling upon Chamberlain’s charming book of architectural vignettes, rich with history, shared in a personable tone, filled me with a profound sense of belonging. As a young aspiring architect and photographer, raised in an early 1800’s New England colonial, I had found where and what I was supposed to be. This little book seemed to tell me so.

Fast forward to today, and I'm reminded again of my place in the continuum; one of the photos I submitted to this year’s Marblehead Festival of Arts Photography Exhibit won the 2010 Samuel Chamberlain Award. 

If you find yourself in the area, please join me at the Award’s Night Presentation on Thursday, July 1 from 6:30 – 7:30 pm on the grounds of Abbot Hall and then at the Artists’ Reception for Photography afterwards at Old Town House.

The exhibit will be open throughout the Festival. Visit the event website for more information.  Hope to see you there.

by Katie Hutchison for House Enthusiast

Maine Museum of Photographic Arts

Browsing through the recent Art Issue of Maine Home + Design magazine I discovered an exciting development -- the Maine Museum of Photographic Arts. It's in an early fund-raising stage. Inspired by a well-received 2009 photography exhibit co-curated by gallery owner Elizabeth Moss, the new Maine Museum of Photographic Arts (MMPA) hopes to represent the work of 200 contemporary photographers, film/video makers, and new-media artists working in Maine. Their first goal is to create a virtual museum comprised of a full-featured website to display artists' work, interviews (via podcasts), resources, and more.

Elizabeth Moss Gallery and Maine Home + Design magazine are holding a MMPA fund-raising exhibit titled Capture: 50 Photographic Artists to run April 2 through May 9, 2010 at the former W.M. Home located at 190 US Route One, Falmouth, Maine. Nearly 100 prints and a sampling of new-media works will be on display. Attend the opening reception April 2, 2010 from 5-7pm.

Of the 50 featured photographers, a few caught my attention: Jeffrey Becton, Tonee Harbert, Christopher Becker, John G. Kelley, Scott Peterman, and Cig Harvey.

Visit the MMPA Kickstarter site to view a quick video about the museum and to become a founding contributor. Spread the word in support of the photographic arts.

by Katie Hutchison for House Enthusiast

Museum of Arts & Design (MAD): Artist's book binds laser-cut pages portraying house in sections

At MAD through April 4, 2010

Section image by Katie Hutchison Studio The image above captures a rare moment during construction when a building section, typically illustrated in an architectural drawing, is visible in reality on site.

The resolution of the building section in relation to the plans and elevations often drives the design of a building. I know it’s where I focus much of my attention when designing a home. I suppose the attraction is the third dimension, which I wrote a primer about here. 

The building section is particularly concerned with the space we shape or carve above, below, and around us. I would argue that it’s the most experiential of the orthogonal drawings which architects include in construction drawing sets. Still, it describes a somewhat analytical experience.

Olafur Eliasson has created an artwork which allows that experience to migrate from the rational to the emotional realms of our minds. His creation Your House 2006 is on display as part of the “Slash: Paper Under the Knife” exhibit at the Museum of Arts & Design at Columbus Circle in Manhattan. The artwork is a 11.5” x 17.75” x 4.5” hand-bound book of 454 leaves (908 pages) in which each laser-cut leaf represents a cross section at a scale of 85:1 sliced through the artist’s house in Denmark at 2.2 cm intervals.

The cut-out sections create spatial voids within and between the pages. You can’t touch the book which is displayed in a Plexiglas case. But a monitor above it displays the turned pages in fast action, so the spaces carved from the pages appear animated, much the way a flip book brings still images to life.  Flipping quickly through the pages of Your House allows you to experience the house's architecture as if you're traveling through it.

It captured my imagination as a dollhouse might. I peered into the book’s tiny carved rooms, stages for fanciful musings rich with architectural detail, and felt connected to this house on the other side of the Atlantic. In a 2009 TED talk Eliasson describes his work as being concerned with “making space accessible”. Indeed, he’s made the cerebral concept of the building section accessible in a new, playful and more tangible way. Later in the same TED talk Eliasson asks rhetorically, “How do we create an idea which is both tolerant to individuality and also to collectivity?” He answers his own rhetorical question via Your House; the artwork's individual leaves form the collective of the book which allows individual museum goers to collectively share the spatial story of the artist’s home.

by Katie Hutchison for House Enthusiast

Building 173 in the 2010 Salem Film Fest

This weekend catch Building 173 at the Peabody Essex Museum as part of the third annual Salem Film Fest. According to the festival and film websites, Building 173 explores three generations of life in downtown Shanghai via seven families who lived in apartment Building 173 at some point since the 1930's. 

The intersection of architecture and the lives of those who inhabit it fascinates me. This is why I'm a fan of house museums. Merge your Film Fest visit to the Peabody Essex Museum with a tour of Yin Yu Tang, the Museum's remarkable example of Chinese domestic architecture from the rural village of Huang Cun, originally built more than two centuries ago. I wrote about Yin Yu Tang here. Wouldn't it be fascinating if the PEM produced a film about life in rural, southeastern China through the stories of the lives lived within Yin Yu Tang? Every building has a tale to tell. Imagine yours.

by Katie Hutchison for House Enthusiast

Happy holidays 2009

Click on this photo to see it in the KHS photo note cards/prints gallery.Some folks have visions of sugar plums as the holidays draw near.  My visions tend more toward New England’s vernacular barns, boat houses, sheds, and folk houses surrounded by snow.  With this winter photo of a favorite Connecticut tobacco barn, I wish you all a warm and hearty holiday season.  Cheers.

by Katie Hutchison for the House Enthusiast