k r i s w i v a k

Name: Christopher Olanrewaju OladapoJob: CreatorDoB: 01012015Description: I am what I am but I'm not what I'm supposed to be. A Nigerian born American raised Architect I reside in Los Angeles but my heart is home grown. I care too much but not enough...My...

[universalmanifesto]

Venus.

[taxx-g-73]

[zayelhawa]

[youngthatiam]

My mixtape, The Art of Being, is now a playlist on soundcloud that you can listen to from start to finish! The set list also takes you directly to the bandcamp page you can buy the tape from - enter 0.00 in price to get for free. A big thank you to all of you listening and sharing with me that you are enjoying my art. 3 weeks since I put this out and I am still being blown away by the response..This is only the beginning. & It means so much that y’all are here for it lol. 

Links: Soundcloud | Bandcamp | Facebook | About the tape

xxxxx

[sssssssssssssssssssssssssssoo-d]

“This bowdlerized land” (selection of work) With the death of my grandmother, I learned that her grandfather was the illegitimate son of a white man and a dark-skinned woman. Our Family history can be traced as far back as the renaissance, but who the mother of this man was, only 4 generations back, remains a complete mystery. Apparently this fact was less useful or desirable. Since then, this history and the fact of this visible censorship has become more than a fascination to me. I initially started to draw the landscapes, “her” landscapes, in an attempt to find traces of who she was. Misunderstood, fictional, tropical landscapes, a product of my (western) mind and a form of exotism. Gradually herein, the censorship started to play the biggest role. Altered, scarred, censored landscapes. Such censorship, not only occurs in our little family history, but is a constant and widespread phenomenon. Memories are gradually manipulated to serve us as we present ourselves in the present. The landscapes that we build are defective landscapes. Landscapes that conceal something which is not to be remembered. The Censorship is intended to make us forget, but the absence of what is not to be remembered insists us and forces to look back.

[lwilmaskreti]

Christophe Chassol, BIG SUN, video stills, 2014. 

[artblackafrica]

Grammars of Imaging

Aaron Siskind, Pleasures and Terrors of Levitation Series, 1954

Max Kandhola, The Diver Series – Variations on Flight, 1989.

[doctorswithoutborders]

Photo by Martina Bacigalupo

A father learns ‘kangaroo care’ in Burundi. #TomorrowNeedsHer http://bit.ly/17E8BQS

[sunborn-sundered-sound-deactiva]

(Open in a new tab for full sized image)

Map of global US military bases. Many locations of bases are kept secret, and there are a huge number of military warehouses, and smaller scale bases, that are often not counted – hence the real number of US military bases is most likely much higher. 

Source: 

Catherine Lutz. The Bases of Empire the Global Struggle Against U.S. Military Posts. “Chapter 1 – Introduction: Bases, Empire and Global Response.“  

[fersinaratia-deactivated2015100]

[artblackafrica]

The House on Mango Street — Sandra Cisneros.

[goldcoasthoney]

by kamsokids

[fyblackwomenart]

Lamaro Smith

[ghost-37]

[theacidjazzguitarist]

Melinated Machine Mother Bored

[eyemodernist]

Stone Town, Zanzibar - Tanzania

Stone Town is a city rich in East African history, culture, and the arts. Its architecture, mostly dating back to the 19th century, reflects the diverse influences underlying the Swahili culture, with the East African culture being preeminent, there is a unique mixture of Arab, Persian, Indian and European elements. The name Stone Town comes from the ubiquitous use of coral stone to construct many of the buildings.

[eyemodernist]

Fractal Architecture throughout the African Continent

El Molo Hut, Lake Turkana, Kenya

Classical architecture consists of mostly Euclidean or flat shapes and straight lines (bricks, boards, pitched roofs etc). Fractal Architecture consists of spherical or curved shapes that can be found in nature. Fractal architecture is essentially the opposite of Classical architecture and is generally defined as contemporary architecture. However this form of design has been tradition in many African tribes and villages for ages. Specifically when looking at the forms of both modern huts and ancient structures.  These structures fuse materials, functional design, and aesthetic in an eco-friendly way. 

If you have been following my blog for a while, you may have noticed many of the newer buildings possess a space-like or otherworldly vibe. This stems from the practice of using traditional techniques to incorporate cones, prisms, and spherical elements into modern design.  Modern architecture does not necessarily reference new structures, in this case it represents an ancient technique that is being rediscovered and reused in a modern context. Please enjoy these images of fractal architecture in various parts of Africa.

Multi-purpose building in Hargeisa, Somalia.

Tataouine, Tunisia - Ancient ruins have such an extraterrestrial element to them the location was used as a set in the original Star Wars film

Modern hut interior in Mapungubwe, South Africa

Great Mosque of Djenné in Djenné, Mali

[eyemodernist]

THREAD Center - Sinthian, Senegal

The New Artist Residency is the local center for the THREAD program, designed to aid local Senegalese artists in mastering their crafts.  

The building is constructed using local materials and local builders have shared their sophisticated knowledge of working with bamboo, brick, and thatch. These traditional techniques are combined with design innovations by the New York based architect Toshiko Mori. Like many Senegalese structures the building is eco-friendly and sustainable. The traditional pitched roof is inverted allowing for the collection of approximately 40% of the villagers’ domestic water usage in fresh rainfall.

Read more about THREAD here