In praise of tiles

[imomus]

Staying in the Athens district of Kerameikos last week, it seemed appropriate to get interested in the ceramic environment; the floor and wall tiles the area is famous for. But tiles have become, more generally and rather surprisingly, something of an enthusiasm for me recently. They improve any environment they're added to, and I certainly wouldn't say that about, for instance, graffiti, wheatpasting, or tagging.



I haven't been to Islamic North Africa, which is obviously the world centre of mathematically-intricate non-representational tiling. I haven't been to Isfahan in Iran either. The paragon-paradigm of European tiling is obviously Portugal, and I have been there, and snapped the walls. Both the trad and modernist designs in Lisbon pleased me, and I liked the crumbliness of it all.

I also like the tiles in the New York subway, the tiles in the old ProQM bookshop in Berlin (a converted butcher's shop), and the tiles -- of course! -- in Japanese sento bathhouses.

In Athens I found myself shooting photos of tiling manufacturers' demo assemblages, mounted, weirdly, in the boarded-up windows of derelict buildings in eastern Kerameikos. In this one you see various clashing modes of floral representation, more or less abstract, plus a representational tile of showjumping horses leaping over a hedge. At some point these tiles must've been new, but they've got chipped and cracked like an old set of teeth, left to weather. Now they look like remnants from a lost civilisation.



These tiles were in the entrance hallway of the building we were staying in, and the ones below in a shop in Nea Ionia.



Back to Berlin, these are the tiles on the floor of a gallery called Artspace Berlin, in Mitte. They often (for me) upstage the art on the walls.



Here's a slideshow of other photos (taken with my dubious Camson) from my Greek trip:

Momus plays live tonight -- as one third of a band called Joemus! -- at West Germany.

Comments

[lana-sv.livejournal.com]

waw!!!

tiles

[(Anonymous)]

check out the baroque meissener tiles on the residence and then compare with the meissener tiles used 250 years later on the walls of the socialist buildings in the city center!

[(Anonymous)]

Blurred photos of yourself posing outside the Acropolis... make it new, eh?

[slime-slime-sly.livejournal.com]

Could you please put me on the guestlist please?I havent seen you play live in years!
thanks a bunch

[imomus.livejournal.com]

For you, Mario, no problem!

[slime-slime-sly.livejournal.com]

I appreciate it. In case you can also extend the invitation for a guest to come with me, please let me know, but that's accessory, don't want to overcrowd your list...

[imomus.livejournal.com]

Okay, plus one.

Just a little offer for your praise of tiles...

[(Anonymous)]

Drop a line when you'll be in Lisboa... I can show you tons of different on-site tile installations.
Until then, enjoy this site, our national museum of tiles
http://www.mnazulejo-ipmuseus.pt/

Pedro Félix
(lx.felix@gmail.com)

[constructionism.livejournal.com]

Thank you for sharing your travel photos with us! I love travel pictures.

[zazie-metro.livejournal.com]

Aha! Awesome, see you tonight.

I really love tiles too. We had taupe ones in my apartment growing up and I hated them! My gran had great olive ones with half-moons of crackled glazing lined along the bath tub.

[god-jr.livejournal.com]

you'd be amused to hear that there was at least one artist at artspace berlin (back when it had a different name) who did a large wall drawing based on the floor. Pauline, um, something with a K.

what time is the gig tonight?

[imomus.livejournal.com]

I'd imagine it's something like:

Doors: 9pm

10pm: Tasos Stamou
10.45pm: Topmodel
11.30pm: Joemus

But it might be earlier than that.

[(Anonymous)]

What time do you get to sleep after a concert or are you too buzzing to sleep?

[(Anonymous)]

MOMUS IS LAST, @ midnight when everyone's far past coherent, behind two bands one of them formed in 2007.

[magick-temple.livejournal.com]

LOL it's called headlining

a local tip...

[(Anonymous)]

There's a new bar on Weichselstrasse, just near Weser, called Kachellounge (Tile Lounge). I imagine it used to be a butcher's as the eponymous tiles feature heavily in one room. It was until recently a junk shop, an incarnation it hasn't quite finished with as you can still buy the chairs after testing them all evening. Nice place, low-key, very neu-Neukölln.

[imomus.livejournal.com]

[(Anonymous)]

girl's night out but who's going to get the hairbrush first...?

[(Anonymous)]

ha, nice one - i'll be sure to actually make 3 masks next time.
jj

[(Anonymous)]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Day_of_the_Tiles