-SOL LEWITT & HARRY SEIDLER, Sydney
-NEWELL HARRY & GRASSHOPPER BAR/TheLaneway in Sydney
-PIPILOTTI RIST & YOSHIO TANIGUCHI, New York
-ALMAGUL MENLIBAYEVA & LOUIS KAHN, Kazakhstan/Dhaka
-HOTEL EVERLAND BY L/B ON THE ROOF OF THE PALAIS DE TOKYO & HELL, YES! BY UGO RONDINONE ON THE FRONT WALL AT THE NEW MUSEUM, Paris/New York
-KAZUYO SEJIMA_INUJIMA ART HOUSE, JAPAN_SANAA
-MAURIZIO CATTELAN, DADDY DADDY, GUGGENHEIM MUSEUM, 2008, THEANYSPACEWHATEVER, New York
-REBECCA HORN & THE GUGGENHEIM MUSEUM, New York
-NEWELL HARRY & GRASSHOPPER BAR/TheLaneway in Sydney
-PIPILOTTI RIST & YOSHIO TANIGUCHI, New York
-ALMAGUL MENLIBAYEVA & LOUIS KAHN, Kazakhstan/Dhaka
-HOTEL EVERLAND BY L/B ON THE ROOF OF THE PALAIS DE TOKYO & HELL, YES! BY UGO RONDINONE ON THE FRONT WALL AT THE NEW MUSEUM, Paris/New York
-KAZUYO SEJIMA_INUJIMA ART HOUSE, JAPAN_SANAA
-MAURIZIO CATTELAN, DADDY DADDY, GUGGENHEIM MUSEUM, 2008, THEANYSPACEWHATEVER, New York
-REBECCA HORN & THE GUGGENHEIM MUSEUM, New York
Sol Lewitt and Harry Seidler
In this Pairing, American artist Sol Lewitt's mural, Untitled, is situated in the atrium of Australia Square (1961-67), designed by Austrian born Australian based (until his death in 2006) architect, Harry Seidler. Australia Square is located in the central business district in Sydney. Lewitt's mural was installed in 2003 replacing tapestries by Le Corbusier and Victor Vasarely. The circular glass enclosure, that encases Lewitt's mural makes it visible 24 hours a day. In this sense it is public and protected art. Lewitt's mural serves Australia Square's mission as a leading center for business, since it updated the atrium with a bright and contemporary mural. Lewitt's mural is not a radical political statement. Instead, it defines a harmonious and site-specific relationship with the atrium space. Lewitt's mural displayed his minimal, brightly coloured, and rectilinear forms that are repetitive with slight variances that travel around the entire drum in the center of the atrium.
I found solace and discovered a greater appreciation for Lewitt's art, as an American strolling by many warm evenings in Sydney. Over the years I've attended several exhibitions that included Lewitt's wall drawings and white, rectilinear, floor sculpture. Upon viewing his work I thought, "Yes, nice. He's very consistent". I respected Lewitt's work. Yet it didn't blow me away. Now that Lewitt's mural is public in Australia Square I developed a new relationship with it. The freedom came by seeing Lewitt's mural as an everyday experience - like seeing the sun, other buildings, traffic, stores and people. I could walk by and think about it or not think about looking at it because it is lit up at night and always visible. Repetitive visits allowed a visual consciousness to accumulate purely by going places and walking around the city. Public art and architecture serve and capture passersby in this capacity.
Australia Square's cylindric form attracted me initially. Circles and cylinders exhibit an inherent harmony. No beginning and no end. Lewitt's mural acts as a concentric circular space inside the glass and concrete tower and add another dimension that is both imaginal and one that is laid on the surface of the interior drum form. There is a sense of peace and harmony, which although not radical is a political relationship. Architecture can never be removed from the political realm because of it's weight, structure and relationship to the governmental infrastructure it grows from. Yet, the inclusion of art can offer a variance of particular spatial relationships. The spatial relationships however small or large are crucial to passersby - to develop unique and personal relationships with the art presented, architecture and spaces that comprise the urban environment. In turn the city is activated and is more alive and is moved beyond the mundane.
I found solace and discovered a greater appreciation for Lewitt's art, as an American strolling by many warm evenings in Sydney. Over the years I've attended several exhibitions that included Lewitt's wall drawings and white, rectilinear, floor sculpture. Upon viewing his work I thought, "Yes, nice. He's very consistent". I respected Lewitt's work. Yet it didn't blow me away. Now that Lewitt's mural is public in Australia Square I developed a new relationship with it. The freedom came by seeing Lewitt's mural as an everyday experience - like seeing the sun, other buildings, traffic, stores and people. I could walk by and think about it or not think about looking at it because it is lit up at night and always visible. Repetitive visits allowed a visual consciousness to accumulate purely by going places and walking around the city. Public art and architecture serve and capture passersby in this capacity.
Australia Square's cylindric form attracted me initially. Circles and cylinders exhibit an inherent harmony. No beginning and no end. Lewitt's mural acts as a concentric circular space inside the glass and concrete tower and add another dimension that is both imaginal and one that is laid on the surface of the interior drum form. There is a sense of peace and harmony, which although not radical is a political relationship. Architecture can never be removed from the political realm because of it's weight, structure and relationship to the governmental infrastructure it grows from. Yet, the inclusion of art can offer a variance of particular spatial relationships. The spatial relationships however small or large are crucial to passersby - to develop unique and personal relationships with the art presented, architecture and spaces that comprise the urban environment. In turn the city is activated and is more alive and is moved beyond the mundane.
Newell Harry & Grasshopper Bar - Sydney Art & Laneways
Circles in the Round, neon light installation, by Sydney based artist, Newell Harry, marks a newer plan to use, public art installations and architecture, to revitalise the CBD area and create a more dynamic urban fabric in Sydney. Harry's sculpture sits to the left and above Grasshopper Bar's entrance, which consists of an industrial doorway that does not immediately reveal itself as the quirky bar and restaurant it is. The path to enter Grasshopper Bar is on Temperance Lane, a small alley off of George Street, a main street in Sydney. Temperance Lane is easy to miss, as it is small and in the middle of the block. The mystery of its location lends itself to the underground and idiosyncratic nature of the bar's atmosphere.
Harry is represented by the Roslyn Oxley 9 Gallery in Sydney. His work includes: drawing, sculpture, photo-media, neon and installation. Harry explored themes and issues relating to identity, language, colonialism, culture, and globalisation. The continued use of neon especially in Harry's earlier work reveals his appreciation for Mario Merz, who was a key figure in the Arte Povera movement. Merz and artists' from the Arte Povera movement, such as: Alghiero Boetti, Marisa Mertz, Piero Manzoni, and Michaelangelo Pistiletto critiqued capitalism and corporate structures. Arte Povera, generated in Italy in he 1960s, joined the many political, social, cultural and global movements in the 1960s.
In art, American and European artists moved outside of the gallery and museum and made performances and installations that blurred the line between artist and participant and reduced hierarchies (between the artist, participant, art, and the urban space), while altering the discipline of art and its institutions. Guy Debord pointed out the woes of late capitalism and formed the Situationist International to find ways to map urban environments, beyond the imposed urban plan to experience the unknown. The focus of many of the movements in the 1960s emphasised collective efforts and intersubjective experiences that recognised and moved beyond stereotypes and isolation, the object in art and the product in capitalism.
Re-use is a growing tactic, in design and architecture today, that Grasshopper Bar employed, which is evident in its furniture choices that include: vintage couches, chairs, tables and dish ware. Although, re-using furnishings and buildings is an aesthetic choice - it also reveals a more ecological approach in design. Similarly, Arte Povera artists often used cheap, everyday objects, animals and natural materials, such as: piles of old clothes, toilet brushes, horses, and found objects. Hence, moving beyond the precious object, while focusing on re-use over newness and contemplating nature - putting the desire to relinquish the grip of Capitalism into play. In his art Harry used stones, woven mats, language and neon that many artists from the Arte Povera movement used. Although, Harry used neon like Merz did he did not make caves repeatedly with neon signs that constantly engaged with the subject of home like Merz did.
The small bar movement, that Grasshopper Bar is a part of fills the need for an intimate and homey feeling. The narrow laneway, where GrassHopper Bar and Circles in the Round, are both situated allowed for more personal exchanges, while moving patrons beyond the bustle, noise and activity of George Street - one of the busiest streets in Sydney. Sydney residents often compare Sydney and Melbourne and the laneway has become a part of that dialogue. When I first visited Melbourne, after living in Sydney for several months, I was immediately reminded of walking around London. Similarly, Melbourne and London both utilize a complex system of laneways that are dense and longstanding destinations. Dissimilarly, Sydney's revitalization of dead or underused alleys is new and singular. The way Sydney now uses laneways, in a singular way rather than just mimicking Melbourne is an important distinction. Grasshopper Bar and Circles in the Round by Harry expose an exciting intersubjectivity between art, architecture and urban design that is expanding Sydney now.
Harry is represented by the Roslyn Oxley 9 Gallery in Sydney. His work includes: drawing, sculpture, photo-media, neon and installation. Harry explored themes and issues relating to identity, language, colonialism, culture, and globalisation. The continued use of neon especially in Harry's earlier work reveals his appreciation for Mario Merz, who was a key figure in the Arte Povera movement. Merz and artists' from the Arte Povera movement, such as: Alghiero Boetti, Marisa Mertz, Piero Manzoni, and Michaelangelo Pistiletto critiqued capitalism and corporate structures. Arte Povera, generated in Italy in he 1960s, joined the many political, social, cultural and global movements in the 1960s.
In art, American and European artists moved outside of the gallery and museum and made performances and installations that blurred the line between artist and participant and reduced hierarchies (between the artist, participant, art, and the urban space), while altering the discipline of art and its institutions. Guy Debord pointed out the woes of late capitalism and formed the Situationist International to find ways to map urban environments, beyond the imposed urban plan to experience the unknown. The focus of many of the movements in the 1960s emphasised collective efforts and intersubjective experiences that recognised and moved beyond stereotypes and isolation, the object in art and the product in capitalism.
Re-use is a growing tactic, in design and architecture today, that Grasshopper Bar employed, which is evident in its furniture choices that include: vintage couches, chairs, tables and dish ware. Although, re-using furnishings and buildings is an aesthetic choice - it also reveals a more ecological approach in design. Similarly, Arte Povera artists often used cheap, everyday objects, animals and natural materials, such as: piles of old clothes, toilet brushes, horses, and found objects. Hence, moving beyond the precious object, while focusing on re-use over newness and contemplating nature - putting the desire to relinquish the grip of Capitalism into play. In his art Harry used stones, woven mats, language and neon that many artists from the Arte Povera movement used. Although, Harry used neon like Merz did he did not make caves repeatedly with neon signs that constantly engaged with the subject of home like Merz did.
The small bar movement, that Grasshopper Bar is a part of fills the need for an intimate and homey feeling. The narrow laneway, where GrassHopper Bar and Circles in the Round, are both situated allowed for more personal exchanges, while moving patrons beyond the bustle, noise and activity of George Street - one of the busiest streets in Sydney. Sydney residents often compare Sydney and Melbourne and the laneway has become a part of that dialogue. When I first visited Melbourne, after living in Sydney for several months, I was immediately reminded of walking around London. Similarly, Melbourne and London both utilize a complex system of laneways that are dense and longstanding destinations. Dissimilarly, Sydney's revitalization of dead or underused alleys is new and singular. The way Sydney now uses laneways, in a singular way rather than just mimicking Melbourne is an important distinction. Grasshopper Bar and Circles in the Round by Harry expose an exciting intersubjectivity between art, architecture and urban design that is expanding Sydney now.
Pipilotti Rist & Yoshio Taniguchi
Pipilotti Rist's large-scale, immersive video and sound installation, Pour Your Body Out (7354 cubic meters), represents an interdependent relationship with Yoshio Taniguchi's renovation of the MOMA. During the installation of her work, Rist described her desire to kiss Yoshio Taniguchi, who completed the renovation of MOMA in 2006, for the atrium space he designed that gave her the possibility to push beyond previous limits in her installation practice. Taniguchi's renovationkisses Rist and many other contemporary artists who perform and exhibit installations, since the atrium and multi-level design allowed audiences to hear and see the art events, that happened in the atrium, from every exhibition floor. Additionally, artists can now work at an increasingly large-scale and with a wider spectrum of video, sound and technological support. When I attended Rist's installation in 2008, it was the first time I visited the MOMA, since Taniguchi's renovation. I was struck at how, upon circulating through the museum, every floor and section of the museum allowed me to see and be seen by fellow museum visitors. In this moment I felt like Taniguchi whispered to me, "we are actually in the world with other people - lets act like we see and understand that." Instead of a kiss, I experienced a whisper. The whisper I heard concurred with Rist's installation, since it provided nurturing, lush, technicolored video projections of nature. Along with ambient, soothing sounds and a communal iris for viewers to sit, lay, watch and listen to, Pour Your Body Out, together.
The relationship between architecture and art, that Taniguchi and Rist represent, is an artist led change by installation artists of the 1960s. In the early 20th century architects would have primarily been concerned with their design and less so with the art housed in the museum, which is a less flexible, responsive and collaborative approach than contemporary architecture employs today. Contemporary museum design signifies a successful long-term change that resulted from artists desire and commitment to work in new ways. Artists of the 1960s, physically moved out of galleries and museums and into the streets and subsequently invented performance art and installation art and it's many sub-genres, which are currently being written into art history. At the same time in the 1960s and 1970s millions of civil rights, women's rights, student, and workers rights activists were marching in the streets. Simultaneously, throughout the 1960s and 1970s many theories on alterity and otherness by Maurice Merleau-Ponty, Emannuel Levinas, Simone de Beauvoir and Jacques Lacan were disseminated and digested widely.
In the 21st century, Taniguchi's design let the streets come into MOMA, through the large, glass entranceway that is flesh to the sidewalk. Now, crowds enter, move through to the atrium and elevate to each level. The artists of the 1960s were surrounded by political, social and economic shifts and changes. They were and are, effected by the specific context they work in. However, artists do not merely react to the context they work in. Instead, the artists of the 1960s generated new spatial requirements and new ways of working. As Taniguchi let the streets come into to his design - he proved that, unlike earlier notions by Lefebvre and de Certeau, change doesn't only happen in the streets. Change happens in institutions and in the disciplines of art and architecture by working in different ways together.
The relationship between architecture and art, that Taniguchi and Rist represent, is an artist led change by installation artists of the 1960s. In the early 20th century architects would have primarily been concerned with their design and less so with the art housed in the museum, which is a less flexible, responsive and collaborative approach than contemporary architecture employs today. Contemporary museum design signifies a successful long-term change that resulted from artists desire and commitment to work in new ways. Artists of the 1960s, physically moved out of galleries and museums and into the streets and subsequently invented performance art and installation art and it's many sub-genres, which are currently being written into art history. At the same time in the 1960s and 1970s millions of civil rights, women's rights, student, and workers rights activists were marching in the streets. Simultaneously, throughout the 1960s and 1970s many theories on alterity and otherness by Maurice Merleau-Ponty, Emannuel Levinas, Simone de Beauvoir and Jacques Lacan were disseminated and digested widely.
In the 21st century, Taniguchi's design let the streets come into MOMA, through the large, glass entranceway that is flesh to the sidewalk. Now, crowds enter, move through to the atrium and elevate to each level. The artists of the 1960s were surrounded by political, social and economic shifts and changes. They were and are, effected by the specific context they work in. However, artists do not merely react to the context they work in. Instead, the artists of the 1960s generated new spatial requirements and new ways of working. As Taniguchi let the streets come into to his design - he proved that, unlike earlier notions by Lefebvre and de Certeau, change doesn't only happen in the streets. Change happens in institutions and in the disciplines of art and architecture by working in different ways together.
Almagul MenlibAyeva & Louis Kahn
The artist, Almagul Menlibayeva, and architect, Louis Kahn's, work is connected through their inclusive attitude toward culture. The context they generated their work in was very different from the other. Menlibayeva is a contemporary artist. Her work is comprised of performative photographic and video installations, which draw on shamanistic rituals from her native country, Kazakhstan. Whereas, Kahn is a Modernist architect. He transported his architectural vision to the buildings he designed in Dhaka. Including, the National Assembly Building, completed in 1982 several years after Kahn's death in 1974. Unlike, Menlibayeva - Kahn was a non-native of Dhaka. He was born in Estonia and lived most of his life in Philadelphia. Similar to Menlibayeva's intention to include Khazakstani culture in her art, Kahn designed the National Assembly Building with the objective of allowing Bangladeshi culture to seep through the large, geometric openings that let light, the landscape and river in, as key elements in the building. However,they both needed an intention, connection and an affinity with a place to depict and design meaningful and magical spaces. To make spaces that are possibility driven.
Both Kahn and Menlibayeva experienced upsets in their homelands and consequently re-activated culture in their spatial constructions. Kahn's family fled Czarist Russia for to the United States in the early 1900s. And Melibayeva's homeland of Kazakhstan has only been free from Soviet rule since 1991. In, Bodygaurds of Yassavi 2, she reintroduced the female shamanic legacy to empower and give voice to Khazakhstani culture. Kahn's inclusion of Bangladeshi culture and landscape in,National Assembly Building, acknowledged the place and culture he designed for and in. Neither Kahn or Menlibayeva desired to cover up or negate the cultural force that existed in the environment they produced their work in. Instead, their will imposed an existing presence to highlight cultural and spatial realities.
Both Kahn and Menlibayeva experienced upsets in their homelands and consequently re-activated culture in their spatial constructions. Kahn's family fled Czarist Russia for to the United States in the early 1900s. And Melibayeva's homeland of Kazakhstan has only been free from Soviet rule since 1991. In, Bodygaurds of Yassavi 2, she reintroduced the female shamanic legacy to empower and give voice to Khazakhstani culture. Kahn's inclusion of Bangladeshi culture and landscape in,National Assembly Building, acknowledged the place and culture he designed for and in. Neither Kahn or Menlibayeva desired to cover up or negate the cultural force that existed in the environment they produced their work in. Instead, their will imposed an existing presence to highlight cultural and spatial realities.
Hotel Everland by L/B on the Roof of The Palais de Tokyo & Hell, Yes! by Ugo Rondinone on the front wall at The New Museum
Kazuyo Sejima_a-art house, architectural installation, Inujima Art House, Japan_SANAA
The architectural installation, a-art house, Inujima Art House, Inujima, Higashi-ku, Okayama, 2010-2013 is by, Japanese architect, Kazuyo Sejima (b.1956). a-art house contrasted the traditional Japanese homes that surrounded it, while contemporizing traditional Japanese motifs that included, cherry blossoms. Sejima also employed her consistent conceptual frames of openness and transparency. Sejima is one of my favourite architects and one of the first women to win the Pritzker Architecture Prize ( the other being, Iraqi born, London based, Zaha Hadid, in 2004), in 2010, along with her collaborator, Ryue Nishizawa (Japanese b.1966). Together they formed SANAA. Of note is the New Museum, in NYC, 2002-2007, designed by SANAA.
I remember the first time I saw the New Museum. I jumped out of a cab on a cold, blue, winter evening with ice on the ground in New York with such anticipation. I was so excited to see SANAA's design for the New Museum. I thought it was great, especially intimate details like the narrow stairwells with small landing rooms to show videos, the industrial, mesh screen that added warmth to the concrete exterior, transparent screen/wall bookstore and glass walled gallery on the first floor that allowed the street to come into the space and the interior space to pour into the street and the top viewing floor with lower ceilings reminded my of the Georges Pompidou Centre's open and beautiful view of Paris. Although, at a much smaller scale. Yet, a great view of downtown Manhattan. I had been waiting for this building to be completed, since I left NYC in 2006, and I enjoyed thinking about it after flying back to Sydney, where I lived at the time, while sitting on Clovelly beach under the very strong, hot Australian sun surrounded by blue green water. Yes!
I remember the first time I saw the New Museum. I jumped out of a cab on a cold, blue, winter evening with ice on the ground in New York with such anticipation. I was so excited to see SANAA's design for the New Museum. I thought it was great, especially intimate details like the narrow stairwells with small landing rooms to show videos, the industrial, mesh screen that added warmth to the concrete exterior, transparent screen/wall bookstore and glass walled gallery on the first floor that allowed the street to come into the space and the interior space to pour into the street and the top viewing floor with lower ceilings reminded my of the Georges Pompidou Centre's open and beautiful view of Paris. Although, at a much smaller scale. Yet, a great view of downtown Manhattan. I had been waiting for this building to be completed, since I left NYC in 2006, and I enjoyed thinking about it after flying back to Sydney, where I lived at the time, while sitting on Clovelly beach under the very strong, hot Australian sun surrounded by blue green water. Yes!
Maurizio Cattelan, Daddy Daddy, Guggenheim Museum, 2008, theanyspacewhatever
theanyspacewhatever, was curated by, Nancy Spector, at the Guggenheim Museum in New York, 2008. 10 artists, who Nicolas Bourriaud highlighted in, Relational Aesthetics, were invited to collaborate with the space, each other, and the public. Maurizio Cattelan's (Italian b.1960), installation, Daddy Daddy, was the most memorable. A Disney style Pinocchio, a liar and a puppet, lay face down and drowned in the museum's fountain. Tragic, funny, absurd, and cynical. I missed this kind of poignancy and also enjoyed a break from it, while not living in New York.
I was lucky enough to catch the, 24-hour Program on the Concept of Time, event that was an excellent part of the show. Every half-hour for 24 hours a different guest would come on and talk or perform. Guests included: Matmos, Vito Acconci, Simon Critchley, Slowfoods USA, Nicolas Bourriaud, Sanford Kwintner, Hans Ulrich Obrist, Nancy Spector, Lawrence Weiner, and many more...
I was lucky enough to catch the, 24-hour Program on the Concept of Time, event that was an excellent part of the show. Every half-hour for 24 hours a different guest would come on and talk or perform. Guests included: Matmos, Vito Acconci, Simon Critchley, Slowfoods USA, Nicolas Bourriaud, Sanford Kwintner, Hans Ulrich Obrist, Nancy Spector, Lawrence Weiner, and many more...
Rebecca Horn & the Guggenheim Museum, NYC
German artist, Rebecca Horn's (b.1944) Retrospective at the Guggenheim Museum in New York in 1993 had a huge impact on me. It was the first time I came across her work. As a young artist, her films in particular, were unlike any I had seen before. The scenarios were always about art and also magical - a man obsessed with a toy piano stopped by the ballet studio repeatedly to play, Horn's feather body/machine/sculptures were performed, a sushi chef displayed his knives, twins mirrored each other,and one of the twins swung out of the window from an upper level New York city apartment and disappeared.
Seeing a filmic reality by an artist that was completely constructed by art made me believe in the possibilities of my own art and art in general.
Seeing a filmic reality by an artist that was completely constructed by art made me believe in the possibilities of my own art and art in general.
Copyright Kim Connerton 2015-2020