Summer rerun: A whole new take on bathroom mosaics
This post ran in the beginning on 25 November 2008.
Christoph Niemann is a former New Yorker and now Berlin-based artist who writes a blog for the New York Times. Niemann's Abstract City is always an interesting read. He talks a lot about his family and their transition to living in Germany. In a post he wrote in August, he talked about his bathroom renovation project.
According to Niemann, he'd usually had a dream of doing abstract pixel drawings of masterworks the use of not anything but colored 4x4 ceramic tile. 4x4 is the default length for tub tile and it's some thing I chase humans away from below everyday situations. After having seen Niemann's handiwork, I doubt I'll be so short to dismiss the stuff anymore.
Check this out. Here are two David Hockneys. And next to each is how Niemann interpreted them in 4x4s.
In some kind of a play for my sympathies, he took on a Rothko and it has me swooning.
Now, he is using format software to draw a grid after which he's assigning every square a coloration from a palette. I'm without a doubt floored by way of what he did right here. I imply, who may want to consider taking dull old 4x4s and turning them into this? Certainly no longer I.
So after gambling around for a while, he settled on a Warhol.
Using Andy Warhol, who become himself doing an homage, in a toilet makes prefect experience and here's the shower stall he ended up with.
I have never visible whatever like this. I'm used to searching forward at new stuff it's coming down the pike, I by no means assume to stop and re-evaluate what's already right here. These tiles are everywhere and he probably paid a dime apiece for them. I undergo my regular operating existence questioning that wall tile that prices $35 a rectangular foot is reasonably-priced. 4x4 ceramic is so far underneath my radar that I cannot even see it. Pardon me, my paradigm simply shifted.
So with the grasp bathtub carried out, Niemann turned his attention to the rest room shared with the aid of his three sons. He relates that his sons are captivated with the New York subway machine, so he grew to become his deciphering capabilities to an MTA map.
His plan become to tile the complete bathroom, so he imported his layouts right into a three-D renderer.
So along with his format rendered, all that was left to do changed into deploy the tile. Check this out:
Mr. Niemann, I owe you a thanks. Several thank yous simply. I read the New York Times each day due to the fact I like to stay informed and I accept as true with that the Times continues my horizons expanded. Sometimes, and that is one of these instances, they get improved so far I do not recognize them anymore. Wow.