Mother London | SFTW | The Creating Worlds Issue

The Creating Worlds Issue

15.03.2012

Guest
Editor

Art Director and Set Designer Rhea Thierstein

Imagining other worlds, creating environments and making fantasy a reality doesn’t come easy. Our guest editor this week, Rhea Thierstein, shares both her inspiration and current work. Expect culinary odysseys from the future, for the future; a cape made from spider's silk; the prospect of turning abandoned towns into microcosms of fantasy; and the best looking egg hunt you’ll ever see.

The culinary odyssey from the future, for the future

By 2050 there will be an extra 2.5 billion mouths to feed on Earth. It’s a growth that is the equivalent adding the current population of China onto the map. The consequence, according to the UN, is that we will need to double our current food production. And so if our ‘food future’ is to be a bright one, we’re going to have to invent new ways to both produce food and serve our food up.

Spearheading such future are my friend’s Bompas and Parr. Next week they launch a new installation called ‘The Culinary Odyssey’.

Taking inspiration from science fiction, their retro futuristic installation will take food to a whole new and edible level as they share new food ideas and give an insight into the food we may very well be eating in the future.

Diners, if you can call them that, can expect ‘bugs for luncheon’, a variety of Italianate al dente dishes developed from insect protein, levitating food and lollies that will bioluminescently glow.

Supporting Bompas and Parr will be the Experimental Cocktail Club. They have created the most intoxicating drink in the world.

It’s called the ‘PAN GALACTIC GARGLE BLASTER!’ and Sam Bompas says, “It’s the alcoholic equivalent to a mugging”.

Guests should expect food fantasy to the highest order and if they survive the minor liver offensives they’ll also be able to enjoy the setting that I have been concocting to house these g-astronomical morsels.

The cape made from spider’s silk

London is currently experiencing its ‘Day of the Triffids’ moment. It’s one of my favourite novels in which giant plants take over the world. Except rather than triffids invading London, it’s arachnids; yes, spiders have scuttled into town.

Well okay, perhaps I’m running away with myself - spiders aren’t invading London. But something of equal standing both in the fantasy stakes and being spider related, is an amazing cape made entirely out of silk extracted from spiders.

Currently on display at the V&A, it is the largest piece of cloth in the world created from spider silk and forms an elaborately embroidered cape and a 13ft scarf.

Created as a work of art by Nicholas Godley, he told the BBC, “It’s to beguile and enchant. A bit of poetry really, it’s a work of art with the quality of a fairy story". As the material is untreated, its unearthly glow comes from the lady golden orb spider, and is a glorious marriage of craft and nature.

Whilst we shouldn’t expect spider's silk on the aisles of Dorothy Perkins anytime soon, spider's silk could be a viable material for the future as a greener substitute for toughened plastics. It is currently being developed into violin strings because it’s low in weight but actually as strong as steel.

But for those of you who have a phobia of spiders and don’t like the sound of a future made up of spider farms weaving industrial amounts of silk, it seems all we'll need is goats for our spider-silky future. Yes honestly, it’s true; scientists in Utah are genetically modifying goats to produce large quantities of a spider silk. Transplanting one of their genes means that the goats produce milk which contains an extra protein that, when extracted and spun, form spider silk thread.

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Re-illuminating abandoned towns as microcosms of fantasy

Ambling through my source images I stumbled upon the work of an artist collective called ‘Les Pas Perdus’, The Lost Footsteps. Based in Marseille, they work in a variety of mediums but their large installation based projects are their forte, it's these that inspire me most.

Their ‘The City of Electricians’ installation, if you can call it an installation, saw the group take over the abandoned mining town of Bruay de Buissiere, Northern France.

They re-imagined the landscapes of the town using the discarded materials that surrounded it to create a surreal sense of magical abandonment and with this, seemed to animate the ‘empty’. They made mountains out of palettes and had glowing chairs exploding from chimney tops.

Not only was this a creative triumph, but a galvanizing message for our times (See the recent ‘Unloved Buildings Issue’ of SFTW). With the recession continuing at a discouraging rate, regeneration in our existing environments slows down (unless its concerning the upcoming Olympiad), so what could be more joyful than restoration in our very own abandoned towns.

Like The City of Electricians maybe we should install some of the Gallic enlightenment

of Les Pas Perdus and re-illuminate towns like Porth y Nant or Binnend in Fife into microcosms of fantasy. Now that’s a brief I’d relish.

The best-looking egg hunt you’ll ever see

1985 was a golden year in the town of Homer in the state of Georgia, US. The reason being was that they established the world record for the biggest egg hunt by dotting a whopping 80 000 eggs around the town. Now that’s a lot of egg, especially when you consider the town’s population was made up of a messily 950 people.

London’s 2012 ‘Big Egg Hunt’ can’t quite lay (sorry) claim to such a vast number of eggs, but it does have 200 of the best looking eggs you will ever see. Each is uniquely designed by some of the world’s leading creatives.

Zaha Hadid, Sir Peter Blake, The Chapman Brothers and Zandra Rhodes, to name a few, all designed an egg. Meaning no one is the same. They’re hidden in different pockets of London, and as fantastical piece of art each bring joy to passers by.

To take part in this citywide egg hunt Londoners can download a map and go on the egg trail. Upon finding an egg, hunters can text the unique code that goes with each egg, which enters them into a prize draw to win a very fancy Faberge necklace valued at £100,000. Finding one entitles you to one text entry, so the more eggs you find, the more chance you have of laying (sorry again!) your hands on the prize. But should you rather fancy an eggs of your own, you can bid online for them, the auction closes on Easter.

The entire hunt is in aid of the ‘The Elephant Family’, a charity working to restore endangered animals habitats and ‘Action for Children’.

I was lucky enough to be asked to decorate one of these little boilers. My egg is called ‘Caeruleus & The Good Egg’ and reflects our ever-evolving environmental issues.

It was inspired by the ancient notion that the earth itself was hatched from an egg, a rather lovely tale that appears in creation stories ranging from Asia to Ireland.

Making a creative change

Finally, going slightly off-piste, I’d like to make a rallying cry to fellow creatives.

Working in the creative industries and making great visual work, unfortunately often comes with a cost - namely waste.

As a set designer, creating worlds that generally don’t already exist, often involves making or acquiring props, costumes and whatever paraphernalia may be required to bring ideas to life.

But what becomes of it all? Sadly a lot gets thrown away due to a lack of viable disposal options and costs. I once watched a beautifully crafted swan gets buried, it was too painful to watch. It seems such a shame to be destroying these wonderful things. And whilst there are some fantastic recycling facilities in London, my favourite is Children’s Scrap in Homerton, there is only so much even they can hoard.

Very simply there is a waste endemic across the board in making of film, TV, fashion and art, in particular concerning the Art and Costume departments.

The solution I believe is that all creatives who know of or work alongside this problem,

should come together to forge what could be an alternative prop house. Whilst there are a few small operators in this field, the most notable of which is The Last Tuesday Society, if we could rally a greater collection of creative people it would be an amazing resource that could re-use and replenish great creative projects.

Done at affordable prices or even no fees for the most needy, would help all the creatives out there, who, I am sure at one time or another, struggle with little or no budget at all. Wouldn’t it be great?

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About the Author

Rhea Thierstein is an art director, set designer and creator of worlds. When she first visited Mother she told us she’d fill the building with swarms of giant jellyfish – if only we’d of let her. Feeling inspired by this week's issue, then go and bid on her fabulous big egg, it’s for a ‘cracking’ (ouch!) cause.

Credits

Lead Image & Story 3. Calle Ojos Del Salado - unoccupied housing estate, Granada - September 2007 by Ben Roberts; Story 1. Faust - Silent Film 1926, film still; Story 2. New Scientist; Story 4. White House Easter egg hunt 1898 – photographer unknown; Story 5. Cabinet of Curiosities - artist unknown.