elefancentric copenhagen

Oddly, elephant sightings are more frequent than you would think in the cool nordic climes of Copenhagen!

There are moving, breathing ones in their own "healthy, stimulating environment" (but still an enclosure!) designed by Foster + Partners. This apparently more enlightened and innovative example of zoo architecture has been home to a few Asian elephants since 2008 at the Copenhagen Zoo... but I'm sure they would rather be free where they can roam and frolic to their hearts' content!

we sense your sadness and boredom...

But perhaps more well-known than the sad live ones at the zoo are the 4 life-size stone elephants bearing an imposing tower at the gateway to the former Carlsberg Brewery complex, which is now being urbanized and integrated as a new district of the city. Some of the old brewery buildings are re-purposed into residential and commercial ventures, including a cool new hotel, Hotel Ottilia (where we stayed one weekend).

The four elephants with the much too heavy load were dedicated to four of the children of Carl Jacobsen, the son of the founder of the brewery, Jacob Christian Jacobsen, who named his company Carlsberg after his son. 
(Carl's wife Ottilia is now commemorated by the hip and happening hotel!)

the elephants are barely protected from the construction work around them

*****

As I walked around Copenhagen the next few days with visions of trapped elephants and dusty elephant statues in my head, I encountered a variety of elephant imagery in random spots...

 swimming in an underwater scene painted on a hoarding in the construction zone of the brewery district...

 as a coveted door-knocker on the door of a modest rowhouse on an Osterbro street...

holding up the ends of a carved ornamental garland below an elegant stone window frame on a building near Amalienborg...

even worked into an Escher-like design on a man-hole cover, and this was spotted right outside the gates of the Danish Designmuseum!

*****

As I became curiouser and curiouser about this state of elefancentricity in a place where it was never a natural habitat for elephants, I found out that there exists a royal Order of the Elephant dating back to the 15th century that is "Denmark's oldest and most distinguished royal order of chivalry"

http://kongehuset.dk/en/menu/news/the-history-behind-the-order-of-the-elephant

Which explains somewhat the appreciation and affinity that the Danes have for this most immense and powerful and stoic of creatures...

but never too powerful even for a little dog to relieve itself upon!

copenhagen points of view

While in Copenhagen last spring for the Architecture Festival, I decided to stay in an assortment of hotels in various neighbourhoods to more fully enjoy the flavour of each.

The two places below provided lovely 180 degree views as I managed to secure rooms on the top floor of each building.

Steel House Copenhagen bills itself as a "luxury hostel", which admittedly it is perhaps more upscale than most generic hostels, but the descriptive of "luxury" is questionably relative! It is, however, well-located on the edge of the Vesterbro area and on a quieter street next to the Lakes (and my double room on the top floor under the STEEL sign has a small terrace overlooking the end lake, as well as the nearby iconic SAS building by Arne Jacobsen). 
This steel-clad building was originally the headquarters for the Danish Union of Metalworkers, and the admirable task of re-purposing it into a hostel was undertaken with some care to preserving the industrial and minimalist character without being too institutional in the comfort zone. I must confess that I had one long night of the most satisfying sleep here, but that could also be attributable to the cumulative effect of days of power walking!

*****

Located diagonally across central Copenhagen to near the waterfront with the Little Mermaid and a block from the Designmuseum (which my room overlooked onto its courtyard with the prunus in full bloom!) is the more conventional Hotel Babette Guldsmeden with a complete opposite of decor aesthetic from Steel House. Although my attic room (in the white building on the right above) was only slightly larger than the private room at Steel House, its rate was almost twice as much. But the neighbourhood is lovely with stately buildings on elegant streets leading to the Royal Palace.

*****

my new book:: NOT HOMe

NOT HOMe

a collection of poetics and photo-imagery culled from my other blog depicting the jarring sight of demolition, a few deserted buildings, some sad empty homes, and other romantic but forgotten places in the savage state of Vancouver...

please preview this book in my blurb bookstore

copenhagen chromatics, part 2, episode 2

the medieval-styled portal of this former Carlsberg brewery building glows a saturated burgundy red against the over-sized ornate tankard grey hinges...

while the pronouncement that IT IS NOT THE END OF THE WORLD X 2 contrasts soothingly in a tranquil sky blue font...

and for a new beginning, the artful shots arranged on a hoarding billboard entice potential inhabitants to invest in the housing development underway in the revitalizing Carlsberg brewery district...

one of the traditional sea-blue stenciled royal symbol of Copenhagen marks a well-used concrete barrier at the palace square of Amalienborg...

the smoky terra rosa fresco effect of a 19th century grave wall surround tinges the moody romantic vibe of the Assistens cemetery in Norrebro...

the intricately wrought and carefully painted Paper Theatre from The Ingmar Bergman Foundation on display in the exhibition Everything Represents - Nothing Is of a curated selection of Ingmar Bergman's film clips together with works by contemporary artists inspired by or have worked with Bergman (at the Fotografisk Center in the Meatpacking District)

on the way to the SMK (the National Gallery of Denmark), one morning, this colourfully blocked panel-sculpture hypnotized with its cartoonish "eyes" in a gallery window...

while at the SMK, a full-fledged exhibition of the life's work of the dedicated Danish sculptor Sonja Ferlov Mancoba (1911-1984) was honoured, where her earlier abstract paintings contrast vividly with her monochrome sculptural pieces...

and at the Nordatlantens Brygge (North Atlantic Contemporary Art Gallery), the large paintings of Anker Mortensen shimmer from misty lightness to bright vibrating shapes in a dark field...

copenhagen chromatics, part 2-episode1

Glaedelig Forari i Kobenhavn!

early spring in Copenhagen and the hot colours are popping out all around town, from the loaded flower stalls at Torvehallerne market to the smiley-skull posters pasted on random graffiti-ed walls in the multi-hued Norrebro neighbourhood...

 the first time I was here 8 years ago, Copenhagen had not yet held an architecture festival - this year is its 6th iteration and it is exciting to finally attend CAFx in a city that is quite perfect for the celebration of architecture and film...

this year is also the 100th anniversary of the Bauhaus movement and the venerable Danish Design Museum mounted a comprehensive exhibition of its history and ongoing influence on contemporary architecture, interiors and industrial design...

from the glazed tile rendering of an 18th century building still in situ to images and maquettes  of danish architect Dorte Mandrup's neighbourhood center in an exhibition of her architectural work at the brand spanking new venue of the Danish Architecture Center in the glassful-full BLOX building on the waterfront...

to a whimsical ceramic sculpture of a 3-dimensional elevation of "Stacked Housing Units"  by Vibeke Rytter at the wide-ranging ceramic-centric Designer Zoo gallery...

to brighten up the long nordic winter grayness, the odd building glows the warmest of mediterranean corals or saffrons to reflect as much sunlight into large open courtyards and dark narrow streets...

the end wall of one of the many rows of 17th and 18th century housing units in Nyboder glows its distinctive turmeric orangey-yellow, all the brighter in the morning spring sunshine...

the triple golden domes of the candy-striped Russian Orthodox Saint Alexander Nersky Church lift the eye to their celestial status and contrast in shape and configuration to the many other spires around the city...

the pairing of gilt discs and red bricks is also used to rich effect on the facade of the new and happening Hotel Ottilia re-purposed from two industrial buildings within the redevelopment of the Carlsberg Brewery site...

more pops of random colours from a floor to high-high ceiling (Untitled) monumental work by Paul Gernes at the National Art Museum to a cluster of Panthella MINI table lamps at the Louis Poulsen showroom...

and what is more storybook colours than the cherry red sentry boxes and the striking uniforms of the Royal Guards on duty at the Amalienborg Palace...

to a string of fluttering danish flags in the courtyard of the Kunsthal Charlottenborg marking the opening of the MFA Degree Show of the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Art 2019

an ididiom book

101 photoimages* of idiomatic expressions, transient messages and poetic scrawls stumbled upon from my wanderings in Vancouver, Paris, Amsterdam, Copenhagen and other places have been gathered together into a new book::

ididiom

my id ++ your idiom

please preview the book in my blurb bookstore

*the photographs in this book were posted on my ididiom tumblr site over the past few years

precious luster

my private amsterdam... in het oog

live at your own risk in the back garden shed,

downtrodden by division rules and rained on for a year...

"all the birds have built a nest except me and you",

while we are still waiting for the boot out the front door...

within a dry home, there are new houses supplied,

but none has come to occupy these pre-fab boxes...

despite the fluttering banners to attract the eye,

do they guarantee "transitional/life-giving/preciousness"?

it is more futile now to labour for the mighty euro,

when the one cent can no longer be strung along...

a horse to the rescue when the canals overflow,

if all the money in the world cannot save you...

better build on water and trust the bridges to hold,

or sail again for borneo to clear more jungleland...

the amsterbird stays lodged up in her treehouse,

watching for T and H to return to their lovenest...