Tatlin's Tower being built in Loughborough Junction

[Crispy]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tatlin's_Tower

Not full size, of course (400m tall). But in one of the industrial yards between the railways at Loughborough Junction, the recognisable form of Tatlin's Monument to the Third International is rising above the rooftops. God knows why. Wish I had a camera with me yesterday!

 

[editor]

What the?!

 

[Crispy]

I was on the train from Denmark Hill when I looked out the window of the train and saw a scale version of the tower being built in an industrial yard - probably one of the artists in the Whirled Arts arches. It's about 10m tall.

 

[belboid]

ooh! I love the Tatlin Tower, magnificently wacky and sexy looking.

For the first, and I imagine, last time ever, I will have to say 'ooh, I want to go to Loughborough' (oh, I have just discovered that Loughborough Junction is nowhere near Loughborough, which is good in one way I suppose...)

Except there's no need cos its gonna be in London too - http://www.royalacademy.org.uk/exhibitions/thearchitecturespace/

 

[Crispy]

That must be what I saw being got ready. Good detective work

 

[netbob]

My money's on Batersea & Wandsworth TUC.

(didn't read the above)

 

[prunus]

Excellent, that's what it is, thank you. I've been watching that being constructed with interested bemusement for the past couple of months. I assumed it was a stage set thing - one of the businesses in that estate does stage sets - it's pretty common to be walking past there on the way to the station and to be confronted with a giant 5 metre high golden foot, or a life-size model of the lion gates of Mycenae, or whatever.

 

[teuchter]

Ah, I saw this a wee while ago, and then I saw it again yesterday and took a photo to put on here to see if anyone knew what it is - but Crispy has beat me to it.

Will put the photo up shortly. You can see it from the platform at Loughborough Junction station.

As prunus says there is an art/props fabricator in that industrial estate who are always making strange things (and leaving interesting stuff by their skip which I have been kindly recycling for them). Apparently they make a lot of the Anish Kapoor stuff and when I first saw this thing I wondered it might be part of that (rubbish) tower thing for the olympics, but on closer inspection it's clearly a Tatlin tower.

 

[teuchter]

This is the company

http://www.mdmprops.co.uk/

although there are other fabrication companies in that estate so it might not be them that's building it.

NB that real stuff is made and built and repaired in Loughborough Junction whereas Brixton now just makes coffee for yuppies.

 

[lang rabbie]

There has been a smaller version in Bookmarks - the socialist bookshop in Bloomsbury - for the last twenty years.

 

[stuff_it]

That would make a sick rollercoaster!!11!!!1!

 

[Mrs Magpie]

Ah, this would explain the mobile phone call I was earwigging on the P5 on the way to Loughborough Junction where Tatlin was mentioned.

 

[teuchter]

 

[teuchter]

 

[butchersapron]

ooh! I love the Tatlin Tower, magnificently wacky and sexy looking.

For the first, and I imagine, last time ever, I will have to say 'ooh, I want to go to Loughborough' (oh, I have just discovered that Loughborough Junction is nowhere near Loughborough, which is good in one way I suppose...)

Except there's no need cos its gonna be in London too - http://www.royalacademy.org.uk/exhibitions/thearchitecturespace/

This is now open. Anyone been yet?

 

[ringo]

Blimey, no idea why I haven't spotted this. Will go and have a gander over the weekend.

 

[lang rabbie]

The quality of the steelwork is disappointingly rough and ready when seen close up in the Royal Academy courtyard.

 

[Gramsci]

This is now open. Anyone been yet?

Ive seen it as Ive cycled past. Its in the main courtyard. I will post up some shots when I get time.

From what Ive seen I tend to agree with Lang Rabbie. The drawings of it on the RA website make it look much more delicate.

You might want to check out RA website as they put talks on this exhibition online. The RA website is good for the amount of free resources they put up on it. See here:

http://www.royalacademy.org.uk/even...et-art-and-architecture-19151935,1777,EV.html

http://www.royalacademy.org.uk/exhibitions/building-the-revolution/

 

[Gramsci]

Excellant article by writer on architecture Owen Hatherley.

"Given the political defeat of all that its members believed in, they would perhaps have preferred their utopian buildings not to survive. What is unavoidable in any close examination of the constructivists was just how passionately and sincerely they believed in the communist project. They often faced a similar fate to other true believers in the 1930s – Alexei Gan and Gustav Klutsis were among the "purged". Perhaps the fascination that the 1920s still retains, however dimly we perceive it in such different circumstances, is the promise of another communism, unlike the one that committed suicide in 1989 – a communism of colour, democracy and optimism rather than a monochrome despotism; an analogue to the recent return of interest in the aesthetics of social democracy, whether council housing or the BBC Radiophonic Workshop. That's as maybe. What is certain is that the constructivists would not have thanked us for our wistful, apolitical interest."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2011/nov/04/russian-avant-garde-constructivists

 

[lang rabbie]

Should have added that you don't need to lay out a tenner to visit the RA's "Building the Revolution" to see the model in its current home. There is no charge to get into the courtyard or for the Recreating Tatlin's Tower display on the various attempts to reconstruct it. The "architecture space" is the lobby on the ground floor leading to the RA restaurant.

 

[Greebo]

Should have added that you don't need to lay out a tenner to visit the RA's "Building the Revolution" to see the model in its current home. There is no charge to get into the courtyard or for the Recreating Tatlin's Tower display on the various attempts to reconstruct it. The "architecture space" is the lobby on the ground floor leading to the RA restaurant.

Even better

 

[Gramsci]

These exhibitions are getting to pricey for me.

The RA and Tate are also doing two types of tickets. They ask u if u want a "Gift Aid" ticket that includes a "voluntary" donation or a (misers) ticket at normal price. So u have to say I want a normal price ticket. Then the people behind can think ur really tight.

Nasty use of psychology imo.

straight out of "nudge"theory I think.

 

[RaverDrew]

If you give a fuck what other people think when it comes to charity donations, you're doing it wrong.

 

[Winot]

If you give a fuck what other people think when it comes to charity donations, you're doing it wrong.

Does the same hold for failing to give to charity?

@Gramsci - the London Transport Museum has been doing this for years. Pisses me off - make sure I give the lower amount on principle.

 

[belboid]

it's been going on for decades. If it is a voluntary contribution, rather than a part of the explicit ticket price, it doesnt incur any VAT. So it isnt an example of nudge theory, its an example of tax avoidance.

When Live Aid was on, they had to have an argument with the revenue about the issue, as they'd 'forogtten' to explicitly mention that most of the ticket cost was actually a donation, and, technically, someone could have bought a ticket for a fiver.

 

[lang rabbie]

Gift Aid has nothing to do with VAT or "tax avoidance" - in fact quite a lot of bodies that use it don't charge VAT on their admissions. If you can get the visitor to give a sum that is 10% more than the basic cost of an admission ticket, the charity can claim back an amount equal to basic rate tax on the whole amount - increasing the value by a further 25%.

And in my experience the RA's staff don't put any pressure to get the extra. [Tate Modern did go through a period of being too pushy in "suggesting" the gift aid option - I wondered if the ticket team were on some sort of bonus]

 

[belboid]

Gift Aid has nothing to do with VAT, but a Gift Aided ticket with an additional 'voluntary' donation does

 

[laptop]

Loving the segue from the Third International to VAT rules