Pilachi_Sketch [ BLOG ]

Upon being asked what my background is, I said that I am an architect; but one would not know from the projects included on this blog. So here is a quick overview of some of the projects completed in architecture during the past few years.

The Xi Cheng Tian Jie building (above) in Chongqing China, is a 2.6 million square foot building, designed as part of an eight person Urban Mixed Use team at Hillier Architecture in New York. Below is an image of Jinji Lake Plaza, in Suzhou China: the first project I worked on after joining the Urban Mixed Use / China team at Hillier.

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A few people have called this week to say that they do not understand how to get into the pilachi.com website. They say that they tried clicking on the graphic and nothing happens. That unfortunately is the result of a joke backfiring on me. The graphic is the NTSC “sign-off” graphic that television stations use when they are not broadcasting.

So until I make the transition of content and design language, from sekanidesign to pilachi, I believe I should have the courage of my convictions to put this blog up as the interim pilachi site.

But do I want that many people in my private, well… semi-private space?

As the Elements from the “Crackled Tree” dream unfold.

The Rotting Tree Stump - Identified on Jan.28 2007
The rotting tree stump from the Crackled tree dream was actually an anthill. The hawk flew, the fence dividing campus and city was on the road leading from Wild Gecko to Airport / Dzorwulu) Read more

It is 3:50am and this has been quite a week. I believe, given recent events and subsequent revelations, that I am on the right track. Read more

“One day I’ll fly away,” she said.

Only six months have passed and yet I have not honestly and openly begun to accept that my mother (I cant even write it). That my mother is dead. I want to change this to “has died” so that there is not so much punctuation and permanence to it.

I do not have the closure or that sense of finality (if that is a word) that comes from seeing her before she died, or from laying her to rest. It is as though, she is sleeping, in a lonely home in Harbour View, unsought by those around who know her, but choose to forget her. Read more

Inspired by an Annie Lennox song: “Pavement Cracks” I spent nine months in 2005 documenting the proclivities of New York City and a week in Sao Paolo (Brazil), using a camera to capture iconic scenes that describe the quality of life… without the glitz and glamour… but instead with raw honesty.

A self-less-portrait of life and incredulity (that sounds so contrived) the photographic essay and the subsequent exhibition at Pratt Institute was called “the Quagmire.” A process of documentation that started, when a broken “no standing” streetsign caught my eye on threshold between harlem and the upper east side of Manhattan. The cryptic sign accompanied me through the city, much like the traveling knome in the film Amelie (or the knock-off travelocity commercials)… to test as many locations where it could possibly make sense… on sidewalks, in subway cars, on subway platforms etc. One would think this quite strange, but oddly enough, no one took notice… except a tourist couple on the downtown 6 train.

As the project progressed, the themes grew more serious. In trying to understand the nature of life in New York, the images were used to tell stories of people who may have lost their way along the (Greenday inspired) “Boulevard of Broken Dreams.”

From the initial approach to the city by air to the ensuing battles to “make it in the big city,” the enveloping ocean of fire, foreshadows an experience that is without equal; and as I was once told by a man I respect very much: “the toughest metal has to pass through the hottest fire.”

Of the (2000#) photographs taken of Serena Williams in Ghana in November 2006 — just before she staged her magnificent comeback and won the Australian Open– this is by far my favorite.

She has the elegance of a dancer, the poise of a mermaid… and the ferocity of a cobra waiting to strike. Beautiful.

Here are a few of the photographs taken of Serena Williams during Immunization week in Ghana 1-5 November 2006.

Serena Williams distributes insecticide-treated bed-nets to mothers and children in Nungua-Zonga, Ghana.

US Ambassador Bridgewater and a Rotarian watch Serena Williams prepare to administer vaccine.

Three boys hold an immunization week poster in Nungua-Zonga, just outside of Accra.

During Immunization week, in the first week of November, I was selected by UNICEF to photograph Serena Williams on her trip to Ghana. The images here (in addition to climbing poles, walls, fences and trees) show how some of the unusual viewing angles were obtained. These two photographs were taken by Kwesi Owusu, the head of the Ghanaian media house Creative Storm.

The photographs that I took of the visit were used by UNICEF, DFID, The US Embassy and The Ministry of Women & Children’s Affairs; two of the images appeared as the cover story and in the corresponding press release and article (written by Allison) on the UNICEF International website (6 Nov 2006).

For the current exhibition at The National Gallery of Jamaica: The National Biennial, the following home page options were designed, from artwork in the exhibition, and uploaded in January 2007. The complete Pilachi designed website can be viewed at www.galleryjamaica.org.