Here is a digital version the catalogue for Technics, an exhibition curated in 1998 by Estelle Barrett, with the artwork of Barb Bolt, Helen Britton, and Lucas Ihlein.
Category Archives: odds and ends
A near-Haiku observed by the Guangzhou “Smelly River”
An apartment block’s
Inverted reflection is
Slowly obscured
By a floating carpet remnant.
Guangzhou Temple Haiku, April 29, 2016
With old straw brooms
Temple visitors sweep leaves.
Sweeping. Just sweeping.
Guangzhou Haiku, 29 April 2016
Bleached coral
Repainted for a new life,
Guangzhou marketplace.
Pearl River Delta Haiku, April 29, 2016
Seen from space: Branching
and dividing. Seen from earth:
Branching and dividing.
Guangzhou Creek Haiku, Thursday April 28, 2016
Guangzhou Mobility Fetish
I’ve been noticing these bike umbrellas around Guangzhou. They’re round on the front and long in the back, kind of the mullet of rain deflection. The long tail is so your passenger is also kept dry – and having a passenger on the back of your bike is pretty much the norm here.
Today, as we went around the city, Hanting, Trevor and I kept our eyes out for these umbrellas. I almost bought one (a pink one with raindrops pattern!) – it was only 45 yuan – but the place didn’t have the bracket that you need to fix them to your bike.
The brackets used to connect them to the bikes are gorgeous make-do pieces of vernacular design in their own right. Like the sticky tape used to strap the cushion padding onto the seat in the image above, the key here is to make it work (not to make it “pretty”).
Here’s a typical one –
The bottom of the umbrella is a hexagon tube which slots into the bike mounting brackets. Bolts or brackets connect to the stem of your bike, and then make an elbow turn and have a hollow tube.
And here are a few variations on the mounting brackets. These photos show electrified tricycles, but the umbrellas are used on ordinary bikes just as much.
I love these things because they extend the mobility that you might have with your bike. Back in Bulli, if it’s raining Albie and I would probably take the car, even for a short trip, and really the only reason is that the car operates as a sort of “drivable umbrella”. But with this “convertible” roof, we could take the bike out more often in the wet.
Guangzhou Creek Walk Haiku #2, April 27, 2016
Stone elephant’s leg
Tethered to folding bike;
Bike tethered to elephant.
Guangzhou Creek Walk Haiku #1, April 27, 2016
Street water flows
Overflow pipe drains
River meets rubble
Guangzhou Haiku, 26 April 2016
“Beware of Land Slide!”
– warning sign at toilet block
(dangerous wet floor).