Sally Wakelin – Studies in Creativity
Paintings, drawings, sculpture and writing
The Art Gallery of Ontario in Toronto staircase designed by the Toronto-born architect Frank Gehry.
I spent quite a while taking of photos of this staircase. Walking down feels unusual as although the stair is open, the views outward are limited and you are enveloped in warm, subtly lit flowing forms.
I have collected lamps of various types for a while – Art Deco, 50’s and modern, here are a few of them, mostly working, some sadly not.
The wooden post of this lamp was badly worm-eaten, now repaired, re-painted and the chromed steel shades polished, it is my favourite lamp. I assume it dates from the ArtDeco period but there are no clues in terms of maker’s labels or stamps.
I bought this lamp in the 80’s as new but its required transformer was missing, I got it wired up with a new one but then blew it by using too high a bulb rating. It looks very pretty when lit, I must get it repaired. The bulbs, one each side of the shade, are low voltage halogen and the current runs through the arms.
I was lucky enough to buy a pair of these lamps, a very dark green almost black painted metal shade and base, made by Phillips I think in the 70’s, rather nasty plastic switches which don’t always work, it would be good to replace those.
The lobby of the Royal York Hotel in Toronto – the most glorious lamps
I am lucky enough to live in a house which is sunlit nearly all day, intensified by mirrors. I noticed this pot of daffodils was being lit from the “wrong” side, from the north, the sunlight was no longer falling on the table but was being reflected back onto the daffodils by a mirror. It gave the room a lovely sense of being lit up from inside.
Later, when the sun had moved round to the back of the house it was much weaker but still made some interesting shadows through the wooden slatted blind on the Spode “Velamour” vase.
Tate Modern – architects Herzog and de Meuron
Stairs and Escalators
Concealed handrail lighting reflected in the glass-lined wall
I love to see so many people wearing red – there is Energy and a great deal of Processing around the galleries
I have no idea where this started but it seems I have a thing about stairs, maybe its the structure – I am drawn to repetion in design, or maybe its the prospect of what might be waiting up there, just out of sight. Architects these days seem to pay more attention to stairs, making them interesting as structures in themselves rather than simply a means of progression between floors.
Davis Chipperfield at The Hepworth in Wakefield has used polished concrete, compressed paper and unusual 12.5 degree angles and roof lights bringing daylight in through toplight strips, to create a serene space.
The Art Gallery of Ontario in Toronto underwent a redevelopment by architect Frank Gehry in 2004, called Transformation AGO, which succesfully “unites the disparate areas of the building that had become a bit of a “hodgepodge” after six previous expansions dating back to the 1920s”. A delightfully sinuous structure clad in fine grained veneer with concealed lighting, wends its way from top to bottom through the existing Classical style building, with views within the galleries as well as the Toronto skyline.
A visit to in Paris, a friend’s house – a converted greengrocer’s shop, a simple wrought iron bannister on the steep concrete steps made by the local blacksmith compared to its counterpart in the corridor, leading to the separate apartment upstairs. Parisian domestic stairwells always seem to squeeze in a lightwell however narrow the space.
An escalator rather than a stairway on the outside of the Centre Pompidou is a lit by a continous flow from red through orange, green and purple lighting.
The Tour Eiffel being painted during its construction in the late 1880’s, the painter seemingy quite at home on these “stairs” Photo by Marc Riboud
The grand entrance Pyramide du Louvre designed by the architect I. M. Pei – again an escalator not a staircase as such but with echoes of Eiffel’s ironwork in the modern lightweight metal structure supporting the glass pyramid.
Sally Wakelin - Studies in Creativity 
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