Wednesday, October 10, 2007

Personalizing space

Very recently Qatar announced formally that it would be competing or the 2016 Olympics although this plan has been in the news for sometime. Shortly thereafter I drove by the headquarters of the Olympics 2016 Organization. For the Asian games in 2006, Doha built a large number of buildings with accommodations for players as well as the spectators. One such building is the twin towers I live in today, each tower rising 28 stories in the diplomatic area with balconies overlooking the bay or the city, depending on the side of the building. Mine faces the bay:










There was no real thought to how these units would function when turned over to private or individual living spaces. The apartments are occupied by ex-pats - 15 units in west tower (floors 5-19 ) are occupied by or designated for my colleagues. My apartment, and I assume all apartments in this twin tower complex, have bedrooms labelled ‘A’, ‘B’, or ‘C’ each with a key, a TV and a small refrigerator. At this time the TVs work only in the master bedroom and the living room although I assume I could pay for the others. Each room has a telephone with its own number although only the living room is operable. Again, money would presumably make the others function, but what are cell phones for?

The complex contains a Laundry for both washing/drying and dry cleaning; a minimarket; a coffee bar and a promised restaurant – it functioned of course during the games and as the units (6 per floor for 28 floors for 2 towers = 336) in the towers fill up will probably function again.

The furniture is new, not ugly but antiseptic, although the colors are good: blues, creams and greys. The tiled floors have a decorative inner border in the living/dining room area:





Recently a cabinet for the dining room area was delivered - not especially attractive but functional. In the past couple weeks I’ve begun to add some personal touches: the Bose sound dock for my iPod that makes music listening such a pleasure; I’ve hung four pictures which I had sent from home: an 1840 David Robert’s lithograph of the Sphinx at Giza; a similarly dated map of Italy; a 1960’s Erick Hartmann photo of Hever Castle; and a new Ed Morgan piece from Taos, Northern Plains ca. 1840:








Since I had also brought a southwest decorated gourd and a small photo also from Taos, I have a small corner that reflects southwest U.S. sensibilities. Rather than spread these few objects around the large white spaces, I have congregated them in the front hallway, to greet me as I enter and to be seen as I pass through from living room to kitchen, from kitchen to bedroom area. Last week-end I purchased new sheets and a duvet cover in cream and blue that my new cleaning ladies helped install - small things to personalize this space.




A bit more on the Hever Castle photograph, taken by Erich Hartmann in 1967.

A number of years ago on the last day visiting friends in England, we went to see Hever Castle (Ann Bolyn’s childhood home). The following day I returned home and the day after that I caught the last day of a showing of Erich Hartmann’s photos at the Magnum Gallery. I had excavated for a season with his son Nick when we were both students and visited the family in Maine during that period. I bought a lovely photo of sea water splashing on rocks in Maine but was struck by a fascinating photo taken at Hever Castle in 1967. I received a copy as a going away present just before I left for Qatar. It is even more marvelous than I remembered. The image above is scanned from the photograph (which doesn't do justice to the original), a bit smaller than the 11X14 of the original. What I love is both the sense of backs turned from the sculpture, as if in boredom, and the sense of imminent danger as the Brits, watching the lake/pond fail to see the menace of the creature rising from the ground, the fingers of her left hand on the rock pulling her up. A friend suggested it appears as though she has swum under the pool and is now rising behind the Brits still watching the water where she dove under.