The Out of the Dark workshop/venue is being used for all sorts of things, including an art exhibition called “The Re- show”. The name comes from its theme of renewal and regeneration, which are pretty well aligned with the “themes” of the Out of the Dark project. I haven’t seen it yet, but the artists say the exhibition is also going to be inspired by constructivism, a Russian style of modern, geometric and experimental art.

This is a picture of the first ever constructivist exhibition, in 1915:

As you can see, it’s quite impersonal and futuristic. That’s not surprising, since the constructivists were heavily influenced by another group of artists, who called themselves the futurists. Here’s an example of a futurist painting:

Whoa! Colourful! Anyway, the constructivists were quite influential themselves, and went on to inspire another group, this time not just of artists, but industrial designers and architects as well. The Bauhaus movement looked a bit like this:

It’s said that Bauhaus was an influence on Apple when it was designing the iPod. I think there are some similarities…

So, if the constructivists never existed, what do think the iPod would have looked like?

If you’ve been following this blog, you’ll have seen this (locally) famous photo before. It’s an old picture of High Wycombe with an arch made out of chairs. It seems like an odd thing to have in a town centre. Where did the locals get that idea from?

According to a local historian, many towns in Victorian Britain built arches to mark special occasions, usually made of objects which symbolised the town. In High Wycombe, those objects were chairs. Nobody is sure how the arch building tradition began, but it appears to have started around the same time London’s Marble Arch was moved from Buckingham Palace to Hyde Park Corner. (source)

And in fact, London’s Marble Arch was designed to look like the grand monuments built in ancient Rome to celebrate a military victory. The Roman tradition of arches evolved from the ancient cultures of the Middle-East and Europe, such as those of the Hittites, Assyrians, Babylonians and Myceneans. These civilizations would build an arch to mark the entrance to their main cities. (below: Roman arch)

So why did Wycombe make an arch out of chairs? Possibly because, 2000 years ago, the Greeks made an arch out of stone.

Have a look at some fab works-in-progress straight from the Out of the Dark workshop:

Here’s a gorgeous sunny stand that has just been repainted.

This table was originally designed and built in Buckinghamshire by local company Ercol. Bought by a Bucks resident and recycled by a Bucks non-profit… this table has hada long local journey.