Informal Architectures: Eureka!
Ryan Nordlund Skull Houses, Citadel, Northwest Calgary 2004
Reflecting on his early practice, the artist Dan Graham has said that on seeing an exhibition of architectural works at Leo Castelli Gallery he realized “Why shouldn’t artists do architectural models?” That simple observation proved to be a eureka moment in Graham’s thinking on how the materials and methods of art and architecture can be combined as hybrid forms that tap into the historical, theoretical and social potential of both practices.
Graham’s influential work and ideas served as a starting point for a symposium series on architecture, public space and time held in 2004 at the Banff Centre and in 2007 at Tate Modern. Curator Anthony Kiendl takes those discussions a step further in the group exhibition “Informal Architectures,” which gathers new and historical works by 15 Canadian and international artists that “describe a contemporary landscape of social, political and cultural assumptions.”
Kyohei Sakaguchi A Zero Yen House with Solar System 2006 / photo Tara Nicholson
Much of this exhibit premise refers back to the post–Second World War suburban phenomenon where city space was radically refocused from a dense urban synergy to the idealized “freedom” and self-contained standards of sprawling communities built on metropolitan fringes. It’s a kind of skewed utopianism—complete with massive shopping malls, two-, three- and four-car garages and an ever-encroaching presence on the natural landscape—that has come to define modern urban life not only in the West but also, increasingly, worldwide. “Informal Architectures” takes on this contentious form of community with a range of artistic proposals that, in the vein of Graham’s hybrid thinking, offer alternative strategies for the creation, representation and inhabitation of space. (286 McDermot Ave, Winnipeg MB)
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