Urban Farmland comes to the Bronx

 

Click image for the full project outline. Totally about bringing back forgotten, un-used spaces and I bet there's tonnes of lingering spots in NYC that deserve a reprise, much like London and so many other UK towns.

The Bike Man

Saw this on my walk on Saturday afternoon in Cambridge, this bike, completely overtaken by the surrounding foliage. Got me thinking about comedy camouflage...


from izismile.com

PostCarden

Love this from A Design For Life, the post-able-grow-your-own-garden.
This way all city dwellers can have their very own plot.
 via Postcarden

Scrapbook Snaps

via Avant Garden post

...and that sorta reminded me of Rachel Whiteread's well known concrete cast houses.

Rooting for a new home

"The Wayward Plant Registry is a project of social exchange and botanical desire. A Wayward Plant, commonly referred to as a weed, is one growing where it is not wanted. They may be non-native, unsightly, invasive, high-maintenance, surplus or withering, and so are uprooted and abandoned, pulled from the earth (or pot!) as urban castaways. But wayward plants, whether common weeds, domestic breeds or rare botanical specimens, are truly in the eye of the beholder. The Wayward Plant Registry sets up Halfway Homes for these unwanted plants, and works to bring out the full potential of their beauty and meaning. The Registry considers systems of exchange, the personification of plant-life, the human stories revealed through plant migrations, and the nature of botanical desire."

Sandra found this marvel, oh how it'd be great to collaborate! from her article in Jungle in the Urban Jungle.

Jungle in the urban jungle

Trapped utopia, mini Eden Project...a jungle stuck indoors!
I was having a look at Patrick Blanc's work

Patrick Blanc

vertical gardens and how vegetation almost seem to reclaim inside and outside the built environment

Patrick Blanc

I like the idea of something that takes time to grow, like plants. This would be nice if it was indoors, in the shop window like Liz suggested in Spring-Cleaning my Mind could this be made up of unloved plants? maybe plants that people wish to get rid of or can't keep, or a garden made up of pictures of gardens and green areas around the neighborhood, people could take the pictures and pop these inside the letter box, the idea of being away too long and the letter box fills with "plants", then we could line the inside of the shop window with these pictures to create an abstract garden collage.

Spring-Cleaning my Mind

Sporadic word / idea vomit (insert better word here):

from joevancleave.blogspot.com

Picture your counters/work tops/shelves filled with not items for sale but t.v's - As many as we can get, old, new, b+w or colour. They show the images of the items once sitting there, flickering screens on loop of inanimate life.  Spooky. 
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Trapped utopia.  Mini Eden projects. A garden stuck indoors. Plants. Bench. Grass. > Contained in shop.  Why not make every empty shop into a courtyard or urban park?  Turning commercialisation inside out, more "gardens" will pop up just as shops are known to.  Lead on to inviting people to rest, or eat lunch in our closed-off nirvana.  Create a real, live, growing shop display: invite allotment enthusiasts and guerilla gardeners to contribute. National Trust's - Country air in a jar. Sell freshly cut grass from our very own lawn.  The Smell of Summer. Reinforce shop trading. It could go on.

from AndyPryke.com

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Sandra's face-cut-out progression.  Boarded shop fascia with oval cut-outs.  Once peered into a kaleidoscope of images made from your face is seen.  Use of CCTV or poor man's version to document the shapes and patterns.  Then add to your interior to act as more image (but this time moving) for kaleidoscope, keep building until really nauseating.  Will require mirrors and some engineering brain power.
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This doesn't require access into a premise.  Write and post as many letters to a shop until the place fills up.  I always notice an empty place by the piles of mail on the floor.  The idea of being away too long. How many posted DL envelopes will it take to fill.  Just pick an address, find out?  How many times can a printer print an A4 black page before it runs out of ink - Daniel Eatock

Through the Looking-Mirror

What happens if the shop window becomes a closed box, lined with mirrors on all four sides?
one side of the box, the side on the street, also has a cut-out for people to look inside (the shape and size is that of an average face) this side of the box has an image stuck onto the mirror, on the inside, which would be reflected endlessly...



I know I may seem obsessed with hair but I like Eika's work:

Window patterns

I was just thinking about cut out images or patterns or a famous painting, with a mirror behind the cut-out areas, this would reflect the surrounding environment which would then look like it's part of the pattern...

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Whole Jotta Fun Ahead

We're now on Jotta!
Log in to add things and friends,
and generally jazz it up.
http://www.jotta.com/jotta/artists/ficklestreetproject

To the note pad, Robin!

Are you adding a note or a person?

Thinking outside the shop box...
Inside/Outside Shop reflection...

SHOP AURA / MIRRORS / WINDOWS TO THE SOUL / PORTALS TO OTHER WORLDS

Mirror Image

On the subject of creating optical illusions using mirrors, or mirror images (that's an interesting topic alone because what we see in the mirror is never 100% true to reality blah blah...). A couple of years ago I was looking into photography for an FL shoot, I had these stored away - two images below by Schohaja Staffler - which resurfaced the other day. The reason these are so pleasing to me are because of the old trick of displacing objects, the inside outside etc. Can we bypass the issue of even obtaining a shop by creating the inside of the shop outdoors and the window is our mirror in...! Whoa...

unknown source

* Also thought I'd add one of my favourite pieces just as a treat, the Wooden Mirror. Génial!