Oh look, another ‘cheese grater’ for Kitten from Malta and Astrid of Gharb
Published:
August 15, 2013 at 10:28pm
Kenneth Zammit Tabona has told us in his erudite column in Times of Malta that the new parliament house looks like “a giant cheese grater”.
His fans snickered with pleasure. It takes imagination, you see, for real wit. Well, this website has found them another cheese grater to snicker at in contemptuous amusement: the Chiesa del Gesu Nuovo in Naples, construction of which was started in 1584 and completed in 1601.
I can’t helped thinking they missed Piano’s architectural references. This cheese grater has been standing for more than four centuries, and no doubt back then there were a Gattino di Capri and a Testarossa Noiosa tittering about it disparagingly.
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Reading some of the things that Kenneth Zammit Tabona has written, I doubt he’s even knowledgeable in the theory of art and culture.
I mean honestly, who do these people think they are to second-guess Renzo Piano?
The fact he has to assimilate geometry into objects of his personal memory proves he isn’t.
These defenders of fluted columns don’t even notice the paradox in making a fossil of abstraction.
Proportion, perspective, rythm, texture don’t matter to them.
Truth cannot move forward and pervade the times we live in. They prefer caging it in their dogmas, which faith, of course, belongs to their exclusive sect.
I stopped in my tracks next to the kiosks some time ago, watching the setting sun’s rays turn the altorilievo (because that’s what those facades are) into contrasting ochres and blues.
Building’s light, but Piano got himself engrossed in the interplay within the thickness of the outer skin, before carrying it inside. There’s so much to read, every page a delightful light-hearted composition.
Intilef jheda sakemm seta’. If that’s not Maltese.
It is not a coincidence that these two have taken it on themselves to be the ‘psataz’. They won’t acknowledge universality of beauty, geometry giving the right to everyone to enjoy it.
That’s too much to bear. Florentines have a word for their type, pisseri. Bow-ties, poses and all.
The largest “cheese grater” in Italy is the huge “Palazzo dei Diamanti”, up north in Ferrara (Emilia-Romagna). Construction began in 1493. This type of design is called “bugnato” and the type of comment by Kenneth Zammit Tabona is called moronismo.
http://www.globopix.net/fotografie/emiliaromagna/ferrara/palazzo-dei-diamanti62.html
Exactly what I was thinking about. That Palace has been copied in other countries too … one of them for their Parliament building.
Gattino di Capri….love it.
And what about Ferrara’s palazzo dei Diamanti?
http://www.colonialvoyage.com/viaggi/ferrara8.jpg
“He is the best man, who when making plans, fears and reflects what can happen to him, but in the moment of action he is bold” – Herodotus.
As if Renzo Piano gives a f**k what Kitten from Malta thinks of his building.
Kitten qatt ma ghaddielu minn mohhu li hafna nies, u meta nghid hafna qed infisser HAFNA, jaraw il-pitturi tieghu infantili u ma jqisuhomx bhala arti ghaliex ghalihom pittura ghandha tkun bhal print replica ta’ Xi Michaelangelo li ghandhom id-dar fi frame gold parigg il-linfa tac-ceramika li xtraw min ghand Gauci tal-linef u l-figurini parigg minn ghand id-Dallas 2000?
Bil-kummenti tieghu waqa f’din l-istess kategorija li incidentalment isejhulu il-pufta tac-coff.
Oh god no, don’t let me post this…
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Rainbow-Gay-Pride-Cat-Kitten-Safety-Collar-/261186766617?pt=UK_Pet_Supplies_Cats&var=&hash=item826dd55f5d
Incidentally, Chiesa del Gesu Nuovo is home to thousands of ex voto offerings to St. Joseph Moscati – http://www.moscati.com/index.html
Shh. Hekk jonqos, pellegrinaggi mal-Hamilton tours.
The spirit in which he used the words cheese grater was indeed a negative one. He is not at all coining up anything original though (though he should have).
Londoners use many nicknames (be it also of commercial purpose or not) for most modern buildings with a remarkable form.
Take ‘the Gherkin’, ‘the Pringle’, ‘the Can of Ham’, ‘the Helter skelter’, (including ‘Cheesegrater’ for the Leadenhall building)for examples, they are used to quickly identify a building in an affectionate way.
http://www.squidoo.com/nicknames-of-london-buildings
http://www.culturaeculture.it/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/monumento-equeste-milano.jpg
The Scooby Doo.
http://mw2.google.com/mw-panoramio/photos/medium/28572830.jpg
The wedding cake
http://rovato.org/files/2013/01/pirellone-corsa-anche-a-rovato.jpg
The Pirellone, or ‘Lower Manhattan’. That’s typical sardonic ‘Lumbard’.
https://www.bov.com/page.asp?n=newsdetails&i=9769
Fuori dentro dentro fuori. Geddit?
What a shame it is in stone rather than E.P.N.S., this dining table seems to be lacking a smart cheese grater !
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10153047624265405&set=t.1635488464&type=1&theater
Palazzo dei Diamanti in Ferrara, considered a landmark in Italian Renaissance architecture.
Analysis has shown the individual diamonds have their centres pointing towards a constant locus at eye-level, creating a holograph.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/spumador/5102834799/
Piano’s west and north facades (still to be closed up) could carry an algorithm for us to decipher.
Piano’s design was calculated to exploit natural light at different times of day all year round without the attendant heat gain of huge sheets of uncovered glass.
The aesthetics of the design are pleasing even if you’re not aware of the underlying thought and purpose. Once the building is open and can be viewed properly from all angles, public opinion will shift – not necessarily for the better, admittedly, but there’ll be something new to grumble about.
To think they started off criticising the bare structure, thinking it was the finished product. They hadn’t even seen the plans and models.
Piano’s also been criticised abroad for having diverted from rigorous function to ludical expression with this building. A diametrically opposed view to that of our native critics.
Piano should, according to them, relive the Pompidour. They haven’t been to this place.
Kenneth Zammit Tabona’s thoughts and remarks are as childish, repetitive, unimaginative and puerile as his paintings.
Expect nothing more, or anything better.
I expected so much better from him as an artist.
I would have thought he was better read in artistic matters and evalutaions of this sort. Sad, truly sad.
Honestly I never expected such behaviour and remarks from Kenneth.I always know him as a cultured gentleman and promoter of arts. Joining Labour has had adverse results on his behaviour.
[Daphne – Oh, I think quite differently. That his behaviour and thinking account for his adoration of Joseph Muscat which is, incidentally, not the same as political support for Labour, as he doesn’t understand the first thing about politics.]