storms and mushrooms…

The weather is erratic and mercurial here in Biella, with lots of violent thunderstorms. After this one we lost internet and phones for half a day…

The weather has caused vivid green and much dampness in one of my favourite local paths for walking. Along Gorgomora i found an incredible array of wild funghi springing up after the rain…

Am still trying to identify this amazing purple monster…so far no one i have shown it to knows what it is…

tiny, delicate ink caps, like little flowers…

…again am trying to identify…for sure i will be eating absolutly NONE of them, but am going back to find more…

Oozing fungus (nice) grows from a fallen log, it looks like something very ancient or some kind of alien life…

giuseppe and the mountain…

Am a bit afraid of heights me, but i do like a trek up a mountain. 20 minutes away from Biella lies the small village of Piedicavallo, from which you can ascend many different mountain paths….

ex rifugio olimpia

Half way up the mountain at around 2000 metres i come across Giuseppe tending his sheep, he has a weather beaten face and 1 front tooth left.

He just turned 80 and his knee is a bit dodgy, but he still gets up and down the hills, in summer he lives in the mountains, with no electricity and a food delivery from a helicopter 3 times a month (the only time he eats fresh food) the rest of the time he eats mostly polenta and other dried goods. He says the sheep keep him busy 24/7 and he never gets a holiday. There used to be lots of people like him on the mountain, now there is just him…

wild orchids on the mountain

cardboard vespa…

cardboard Vespa in shop window in Via Italia, Biella

OK I know i have left the place now but i leave you with this last fun fact about Biella: round about the end of WWII in an attempt to create low cost transport for the masses, the first version of the Vespa was invented there! The early version was named by the workers Paperino, or Donald Duck, because of its its strange (subsequently reworked) shape. You can read a full and comprehensive history here.

And i leave you with the worlds most amateur attempt at a Koyaanisqatsi style time laps landscape. Please bear in mind it was done one on a day when i was ill, bored, stuck in my room…and as always without a tripod!

14 desks…

Am repeating the images i posted the other day in my UNIDEE blog, because this is indeed a very interesting time, we are in the last 10 days of a 4 month residency and the studio space is about to dramatically change.

Everything will be cleared out and next week we will start to install works. You can become very accustomed life in to a residency, every experience (both good and bad) becomes heightened, and you can pack into 4 months what you might normally experience in one year. So it is a big deal to have to clear out your studio space. Right now i think the desks in our space look very beautiful, full of work and ideas hence this post:

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

arguta…

…obviously there are probably a million species of fruit and vegetables that i have never seen or heard of…today i learned a new one.

Felicità is a local producer here in Biella who comes to the courtyard in Cittadellarte once a week with whatever is in season on her land to sell to all of us who work here. Today she brought some Arguta. It’s like a small kiwi, it’s very sweet and you eat it whole without peeling, it’s also known as hardy kiwifruit, kiwi berry, baby kiwi, dessert kiwi or cocktail kiwi and grows in a vine like the regular kiwi. Its very hardy and can withstand gradual drops to cold temperatures (for those of you thinking of growing it)…and it tastes really good…