Post #342863 by bigbrotiki on Thu, Nov 8, 2007 9:29 PM

On 2007-11-08 20:39, SilverLine wrote:
Now this has me thinking about Witco in architectural terms. If Tiki was the primitive alter-ego of atomic modern architecture, maybe these polar opposites melded in Witco and brutalism?

Absolutely! That is why I quote Le Corbusier at the beginning of the William Westenhaver chapter:

“…I have decided to make beauty by contrast. I will find its complement and establish a play between crudity and finesse, between the dull and the intense, between precision and accident.”

And that is why I wrote in the PR text for TIKI MODERN:

"....Decor deities and ersatz ancestors outrageously merged in the modern brutalist furniture from the house of Witco..."

And like Witco, brutalist architecture was considered ugly by many, and remained unpopular, as Wikipedia states"

"The failure of positive communities to form early on in some Brutalist structures, possibly due to the larger processes of urban decay that set in after World War II (especially in the United Kingdom), led to the combined unpopularity of both the ideology and the architectural style."

One pro-Witco argument I have is that the "unsophisticated" way of leaving materials looking rough and unfinished was more "honest" and closer to native primitive art and abilities than smoother, well executed carvings. In theory, at least.