Ian Hunt
@ianhunt.bsky.social
art, architecture, environment & politics | former UKHE worker | GPEW (but here as a civilian) | chief distractions: novels, poetry, botany, buildings | he/him | Green Light (2006) https://www.barquepress.com/media/12/pdf/ian_hunt_green_light.pdf
As occasional London art person: in next three days (to November 29): go to see Chickenman Mkhize (1959-1995) with four photographs by Roger Palmer at @isaacbenigson Old and Interesting Art 12.00-17.30 -- 44 Great Russell Street, opposite British Museum. /
November 27, 2025 at 10:18 AM
As occasional London art person: in next three days (to November 29): go to see Chickenman Mkhize (1959-1995) with four photographs by Roger Palmer at @isaacbenigson Old and Interesting Art 12.00-17.30 -- 44 Great Russell Street, opposite British Museum. /
Stanislav Kolíbal (b.1925) is a compelling sculptor growing out of the constructive traditions but whose work develops intriguingly, 80s and since. For #NottingHill pedestrians and for those who still like #concrete, is the coffrage for the work that forms part of the Czecholavakia Embassy, 1968.
November 23, 2025 at 4:11 PM
Stanislav Kolíbal (b.1925) is a compelling sculptor growing out of the constructive traditions but whose work develops intriguingly, 80s and since. For #NottingHill pedestrians and for those who still like #concrete, is the coffrage for the work that forms part of the Czecholavakia Embassy, 1968.
Poem about a street sweeper I forgot I had written. Complete text is in alt text for image 1
November 23, 2025 at 8:54 AM
Poem about a street sweeper I forgot I had written. Complete text is in alt text for image 1
Surface treatments: Boultings building, Ridinghouse Street, Fitzrovia, H. Fuller Clarke 1903. One of the most original commercial buildings of its date. Nearby in Langham St, 1901, Howard de Walden Nurses Home. Odd: use of glazed brick but otherwise not modern. #Edwardian #ArchitecturalHistory
November 21, 2025 at 3:32 PM
Surface treatments: Boultings building, Ridinghouse Street, Fitzrovia, H. Fuller Clarke 1903. One of the most original commercial buildings of its date. Nearby in Langham St, 1901, Howard de Walden Nurses Home. Odd: use of glazed brick but otherwise not modern. #Edwardian #ArchitecturalHistory
Cleveland Street Workhouse, 1775-78, latterly part of Middlesex Hospital, London: scrubbed, bleached, repointed. The postcard is from 1930, the year in which workhouses were formally abolished. #ArchitecturalHistory #Hospitals
November 21, 2025 at 3:18 PM
Cleveland Street Workhouse, 1775-78, latterly part of Middlesex Hospital, London: scrubbed, bleached, repointed. The postcard is from 1930, the year in which workhouses were formally abolished. #ArchitecturalHistory #Hospitals
Susan Howe's terrific book of poems, 'A Bibliography of the King's Book or, Eikon Basilike
November 19, 2025 at 9:31 AM
Susan Howe's terrific book of poems, 'A Bibliography of the King's Book or, Eikon Basilike
The side bit of Victoria Station (1906-08, Sir Charles Morgan) is slightly less bombastic than the front and has two good passages for nipping out the side. I love the way it glows green after dark with the light from Wicked: the musical opposite. #London #Architecture #Edwardian
November 19, 2025 at 9:11 AM
The side bit of Victoria Station (1906-08, Sir Charles Morgan) is slightly less bombastic than the front and has two good passages for nipping out the side. I love the way it glows green after dark with the light from Wicked: the musical opposite. #London #Architecture #Edwardian
London art people: go see this enterprising small show by Chickenman Mhkize (1959-1995) and Roger Palmer. #SouthAfrica isaacbenigson.com/exhibition/w...
November 12, 2025 at 5:53 PM
London art people: go see this enterprising small show by Chickenman Mhkize (1959-1995) and Roger Palmer. #SouthAfrica isaacbenigson.com/exhibition/w...
Fly agaric, Amanita muscaria -- one of an enormous number of fungi seen between Walberswick and Blythburgh, most of which I will never identify. #Fungi #SuffolkNature
November 9, 2025 at 6:20 PM
Fly agaric, Amanita muscaria -- one of an enormous number of fungi seen between Walberswick and Blythburgh, most of which I will never identify. #Fungi #SuffolkNature
Sea Holly, some flowers still showing blue, Southwold dunes. Looking it up, why I am I surprised (except I see it rarely) that it's in #Apiaceae. #WildflowerHour #SuffolkNature
November 9, 2025 at 6:14 PM
Sea Holly, some flowers still showing blue, Southwold dunes. Looking it up, why I am I surprised (except I see it rarely) that it's in #Apiaceae. #WildflowerHour #SuffolkNature
Marsh Sow Thistle, Sonchis palustris -- I think! -- have seen it growing here in the flowering season but not in the seed stage before. Angel Marshes, River Blyth. Approx 1.5m tall. Reasonably rare and interesting plant in Asteraceae, tolerates some salt. #WildflowerHour #Botany #SuffolkNature
November 9, 2025 at 6:09 PM
Marsh Sow Thistle, Sonchis palustris -- I think! -- have seen it growing here in the flowering season but not in the seed stage before. Angel Marshes, River Blyth. Approx 1.5m tall. Reasonably rare and interesting plant in Asteraceae, tolerates some salt. #WildflowerHour #Botany #SuffolkNature
'The best ink for Vanity Fair use would be one that faded utterly in a couple of days, and left the paper clean and blank . . .' Chapter XIX. #VanityFair #Thackeray
November 8, 2025 at 8:21 AM
'The best ink for Vanity Fair use would be one that faded utterly in a couple of days, and left the paper clean and blank . . .' Chapter XIX. #VanityFair #Thackeray
What is the black stuff on the side of entertaining Southwold terrace, bitumen, as weatherproofing? You rarely see black in such expanses and with this quality. It's velvety, warm, soaks up light. #vernacular #architecture
November 6, 2025 at 12:12 PM
What is the black stuff on the side of entertaining Southwold terrace, bitumen, as weatherproofing? You rarely see black in such expanses and with this quality. It's velvety, warm, soaks up light. #vernacular #architecture
Seablite reddening, Walberswick. A white egret flew close by at our eye level, going slowly and steadily into the wind. Closest i have beento one
November 4, 2025 at 4:01 PM
Seablite reddening, Walberswick. A white egret flew close by at our eye level, going slowly and steadily into the wind. Closest i have beento one
Tributes to Edward Said crop up in a range of places. This is from the preface to Rob Nixon's Slow Violence and the Environmentalism of the Poor, 2011. Nixon studied with Said at Columbia. #SlowViolence #RobNixon
November 1, 2025 at 9:57 AM
Tributes to Edward Said crop up in a range of places. This is from the preface to Rob Nixon's Slow Violence and the Environmentalism of the Poor, 2011. Nixon studied with Said at Columbia. #SlowViolence #RobNixon
Edward Said was born 90 years ago in Jerusalem, Mandatory Palestine so there is a birthday to celebrate in all its contradictions, come on people who read, sometimes act, mourn, still look forwards. I just read Culture and Imperialism, 1993 - 'contrapuntal reading' has a future. #EdwardSaid #litcrit
November 1, 2025 at 8:27 AM
Edward Said was born 90 years ago in Jerusalem, Mandatory Palestine so there is a birthday to celebrate in all its contradictions, come on people who read, sometimes act, mourn, still look forwards. I just read Culture and Imperialism, 1993 - 'contrapuntal reading' has a future. #EdwardSaid #litcrit
I was seeing the Ursula Le Guin show after being at the retrospective of Emily Kam Kngwarray at Tate Modern -- which I highly recommend too. www.theguardian.com/artanddesign...
October 29, 2025 at 8:23 AM
I was seeing the Ursula Le Guin show after being at the retrospective of Emily Kam Kngwarray at Tate Modern -- which I highly recommend too. www.theguardian.com/artanddesign...
Zoë Wicomb 1948-2025. RIP. The late flowering of Zoë's work, from David's Story (2000) to Still Life (2020), is astonishing. I can't think of a contemporary writer more worthy of careful and repeated reading. #ZoëWicomb
October 27, 2025 at 8:31 AM
Zoë Wicomb 1948-2025. RIP. The late flowering of Zoë's work, from David's Story (2000) to Still Life (2020), is astonishing. I can't think of a contemporary writer more worthy of careful and repeated reading. #ZoëWicomb
I am coming to the awkward conclusion that Cardinal Place Victoria (EPR Architects, completed 2005) is interesting as architecture. I had not realised that the same firm was responsible for the irregularly stacked 70s glass boxes that frame Westminster Cathedral, over the road.
October 26, 2025 at 9:11 AM
I am coming to the awkward conclusion that Cardinal Place Victoria (EPR Architects, completed 2005) is interesting as architecture. I had not realised that the same firm was responsible for the irregularly stacked 70s glass boxes that frame Westminster Cathedral, over the road.
Allowing some architecture as distraction, worked out from Westminster's conservation area guides that this nice Gothic Revival school (1872, w small terrace, right) is by Thomas Cundy III, who designed mostly in Italianate and French Renaissance styles. Should have asked @thevicsoc.bsky.social
October 16, 2025 at 12:25 PM
Allowing some architecture as distraction, worked out from Westminster's conservation area guides that this nice Gothic Revival school (1872, w small terrace, right) is by Thomas Cundy III, who designed mostly in Italianate and French Renaissance styles. Should have asked @thevicsoc.bsky.social
very, very sad to learn of the death of Zoë Wicomb, yesterday. Roger Palmer, her partner, posted this on IG. I cannot think of a writer I have enjoyed (among everything else, she is incredibly witty and has a real sense of comedy) or learned more from. One of the truly greats. RIP.
October 14, 2025 at 6:52 PM
very, very sad to learn of the death of Zoë Wicomb, yesterday. Roger Palmer, her partner, posted this on IG. I cannot think of a writer I have enjoyed (among everything else, she is incredibly witty and has a real sense of comedy) or learned more from. One of the truly greats. RIP.
Train cancelled at Victoria so small explore. St Peters Eaton Sq, nice asymmetric Goth Revival school on a corner site. Polychrome brickwork, good ironwork and those odd chamfered gables on the dormer windows as well as the one big gable end. Who did it? #Architecture #C19
October 13, 2025 at 9:35 AM
Train cancelled at Victoria so small explore. St Peters Eaton Sq, nice asymmetric Goth Revival school on a corner site. Polychrome brickwork, good ironwork and those odd chamfered gables on the dormer windows as well as the one big gable end. Who did it? #Architecture #C19
last flowers on Spiny Restharrow, Ononis spinosa, in Fabaceae, pea family. Hampstead Heath, London, in the place I found it two or more years ago. #WldflowerHour #Botany
October 12, 2025 at 7:45 PM
last flowers on Spiny Restharrow, Ononis spinosa, in Fabaceae, pea family. Hampstead Heath, London, in the place I found it two or more years ago. #WldflowerHour #Botany