Borrowing its name from Frederick Kiesler’s unrealized
project, Endless House: Intersections of
Art and Architecture presents drawings, models, videos, and photographs
from MoMA’s collection from 1940s until today. Curated by Pedro Gadanho and Phoebe
Springstubb, the exhibition creates a dialogue between architects and artists
that explore the creative potential of the house as a means to expand the limits
of architecture.
Kiesler’s project is the point of departure of the
exhibition; his organic, fluid forms are shown in direct contrast with Mies van
der Rohe’s Farnsworth house, an icon of the rationalism of the International
Style. The center of the gallery is filled with models, from the post-modernist
Vanna Venturi House by Robert Venturi to the odd shapes of Frank Gehry and
contemporary projects by Kazuyo Sejima and Asymptote Architecture – all
reflecting a desire to challenge the concept of house through experimentation. However,
while most of these projects seem to break with tradition through a formal
approach, fragmenting and re-ordering spaces, works from artists Gordon
Matta-Clark and Rachel Witheread, among others, remind us of larger themes
related to the house: the relationship between public and private space as well
as between impermanence and memory. Artists and architects bring different
perspectives to the subject, presenting the major role of the house in the
evolution of architecture as well as the universal and personal subjects that
the idea of home evokes.
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ReplyDeleteI like the way you categorize and summarize all the models and point out the general theme among them. It really helps me to recall and think about the exhibition comprehensively. As a non-Architecture major person, I would like to hear more about your opinions and the interpretations from your perspective. You probably can expand on one or a few models. For instance, you mentioned at the end of first paragraph "all reflecting the experimental peotential of the house", and the "relationship between public and private space as well as between impermanence and memory". I was trying to find a clue from what I've seen to link the concept you pointed out to models. It will be not so abstract if you can go in-depth on one model and discuss it such as shape, structure, environment, even the background of the architect.
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