Brutalist

Posted on June 2, 2010 by Varg

A while back, I was thinking about the Superdome the other day and started tooling around Wikipedia and checking out stadiums in other cities. I am sure we have all started into the Wikipedia nebula on a fact-finding mission and let its stream-of-consciousness index of links and articles carry us through all sorts of subject matter. Well, from Qualcomm Stadium, I was led to Brutalist Architecture. The I got stuck. I knew I had seen this style before and I knew it was a building I saw frequently. A structure I saw a lot. But I couldn’t quite figure it out.

Then the other day, I was passing through Lee Circle and it was right there.

It didn’t make the list though so perhaps I’m wrong.

5 thoughts on “Brutalist”

Mark Folse says:

June 2, 2010 at 4:31 pm

No you would have to visit the Rivergate for a prime example, but it ain’t dere no more. My father was actually a proponent of this style of architecture when he was the senior non-partner at Curtis & Davis.
Varg says:

June 2, 2010 at 6:18 pm

A bit cold and lifeless to me. Great for a government building.
jeffrey says:

June 3, 2010 at 3:05 pm

Maybe the Main Library kind of fits this description. I can kind of see the Superdome as a quasi-example but not in any negative sense. I’ve always appreciated the simple elegance of the Superdome which I think is diminished a bit by the overly ornamental gold skin it’s currently receiving.
Varg says:

June 3, 2010 at 4:37 pm

I with ya. Because there is no way Tracy Porter’s barber could have got something like Dallas Stadium shaved into his head.

Love the new gold skin though.
Michael says:

June 4, 2010 at 8:54 am

The BR city-parish government building is a classic Brutalist structure over here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Baton_Rouge_Governmental_Building.JPG

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Rejoice!

I say that a lot. I sign many pieces with it. I do this because I believe our lives are a true happenstance. A brilliant occurence from nothingness. We are so rare. We are so unlikely. And simply being born isn’t enough. From there we must survive, endure. So each morning, after our Sun departs and is reborn again. Please, for the sake of your ancestors and the Universe in general, hoist that cup of joe up and say, “Rejoice.”

Ours is a soulful existence. No matter how many McMansions, polyester fabrics, auto-tunes, modified foods and social networks we surround ourselves with, we are all still native, passionate beings made of ancient matter. We are organic and we have soul.

Wood also has a warm, soulful quality. Wood has a memory. It retains smells, traumas, events. It even has a calendar. This is why I have chosen it as my medium, for its old soul. I like to think the wood in my work is in its third incarnation. First a tree, then a home and now art. If you have a room that needs a little soul, get a piece. A room can never have enough soul.

My inspiration and subject matter comes from many sources, among them: Humanism, old ballads, trickster tales, flora and fauna, science, myths and folklore, stringed instruments, brass bands, amber spirits, lady vocalists, general relativity and quantum mechanics. Some of my pieces are there just to make a short, simple statement about what’s important in life. Some are more diffuse and abstract in meaning. A personal drama, an enduring line from a poem or novel, a poignant song lyric, the legacy of an important person, a fleeting thought … these are the subjects of my art.

I use hearts often because they are a very abstract way of depicting the human soul without also employing the very subjective human form. The symbolic heart is an apt representation for a person’s experience and essence. A body can immediatly conjure happiness, sorrow, youth, age, anger, bliss. These emotions can get in the way. Sometimes it’s simply about the experience.

I am the son of a sailor and a social worker, the grandson of a gypsy, a dancer and a nurse. I spent my youth moving from port city to port city, watching a lot of road go by and reading World Book Encyclopedia. After my parents settled down on the Gulf Coast, I was a miscreant youth, destroying cars and taking the wrongs things too seriously and the right things not serious enough. Eventually I began replacing my imagination with experience.

I will use any salvaged wood but prefer swamp cypress and longleaf heartwood pine.

I despise waste. Particularly the waste of organic matter. Trees are magnificent. They were here before we arrived and they’ll be around after we are gone. I’m making an effort to save as much wood as possible. Creating art is fun too. But beyond communicating with folks, but beyond making money ad providing for myself, beyond rescuing flooded parts, beyond reveling in the ethereal aroma of heartpine that hasn’t seen the light of day in 400 years, beyond all that, I am trying to make a simple comment on waste.