American Kestrel
( Detail )
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Eastern Birds
Three new painted ceiling panels for a private apartment at the Carlyle Hotel - New York.
A stylized coffered ceiling, like an advent calendar with indigenous Eastern U.S birds. In collaboration with William Cullum / Thomas Jayne Design Studio. NYC.
"Eastern Birds" was executed at the Amsterdam studio.
Installed in New York City in April 2023.
Common Grackle
( Detail )
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Yellow Billed Cuckoo
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Ten years ago I designed and executed a ceiling like this on a much larger scale for a Cees Dam designed boardroom. done in the architect’s modernist Scarpa influenced style .
Graphically stylized and almost abstract, yet executed in subtle limestone hues, giving it all a “life” touch, and warm light.
The inner squares are like islands of detail and colour; sky, birds and ornaments, set like gems in a vast grid structure .
It was the insight of William Cullum at JDS-NYC that this design with some adjustments, could aso function on a smaller scale at this Carlyle Hotel apartment..
And it does .. brilliantly so ..
The original Italian Renaissance styled ornaments were changed for designs with an Art-deco touch and the European birds for a company of indigenous Eastern U.S ones.
Both interventions adding such a great sense of “belonging” to it.
Making it all feel comfortably at home ..
Graphically stylized and almost abstract, yet executed in subtle limestone hues, giving it all a “life” touch, and warm light.
The inner squares are like islands of detail and colour; sky, birds and ornaments, set like gems in a vast grid structure .
It was the insight of William Cullum at JDS-NYC that this design with some adjustments, could aso function on a smaller scale at this Carlyle Hotel apartment..
And it does .. brilliantly so ..
The original Italian Renaissance styled ornaments were changed for designs with an Art-deco touch and the European birds for a company of indigenous Eastern U.S ones.
Both interventions adding such a great sense of “belonging” to it.
Making it all feel comfortably at home ..
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Blue Heron
- Detail of the installed ceiling - Walls by Pierre Finkelstein -
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Dear William
Using indigenous U.S birds might be a good idea. .
There is such a nice sense of logic to it.
Amsterdam 17th c. bird ceilings – a genre of which I’m currently installing a new interpretation in a 1670's canalhouse monument - would often show a mix of tropical and local birds, thereby reflecting a sense of wealth, international orientation and the far reaching influence of Dutch military and colonial power. . . Later that would shift to an early scientific Natural History approach .
Today, when almost everybody is a cosmopolitan in some sort of way, I imagine using a specific selection of native birds has (re)gained a different meaning. From the perspective of preservation. . but also as a sense of “belonging”. .
Cycling or walking through the centre of Amsterdam on late winter nights, I sometimes hear the sound of wild geese crossing over,
through the dark, high above the city.
Like sounds from a parallel universe. .
For me a deeply cherished phenomenon.
Best from Amsterdam
P
Using indigenous U.S birds might be a good idea. .
There is such a nice sense of logic to it.
Amsterdam 17th c. bird ceilings – a genre of which I’m currently installing a new interpretation in a 1670's canalhouse monument - would often show a mix of tropical and local birds, thereby reflecting a sense of wealth, international orientation and the far reaching influence of Dutch military and colonial power. . . Later that would shift to an early scientific Natural History approach .
Today, when almost everybody is a cosmopolitan in some sort of way, I imagine using a specific selection of native birds has (re)gained a different meaning. From the perspective of preservation. . but also as a sense of “belonging”. .
Cycling or walking through the centre of Amsterdam on late winter nights, I sometimes hear the sound of wild geese crossing over,
through the dark, high above the city.
Like sounds from a parallel universe. .
For me a deeply cherished phenomenon.
Best from Amsterdam
P
Common Grackles
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Pintail duck
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Yellow Billed Cuckoo
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The Carlyle Hotel NYC
Seen from Central Park
