Curated by Gabriela Salgado.
Rebellious Modernities presents physical and emotional spaces that engage the senses. Four perspectives destabilise the modernist parameters that underpin architectural value.
Inspired by the concept of ‘anarchitecture’, a term coined by the late artist and architect Gordon Matta-Clark (1943–1978), the exhibition includes new works by Auckland-based artists Sosefina Andy, Matt Coldicutt and Yonel Watene. Against the backdrop of New Zealand’s ongoing housing crisis and the rise of homelessness worldwide, the artists propose a rebellious deconstruction of notions of private and public space, building life strategies for survival, resistance and the recovery of memory. Their at times precarious structures evidence modernism’s failures and hangover: excess leading to waste and unsuitable adaptations to other geographies. Most vitally, the works celebrate collectivism and political auto-construction.
The exhibition includes Matta-Clark’s 1972 film Open House, which records the artist’s industrial waste container built with discarded construction materials between 98 and 112 Greene Street, New York, where he co-founded the first artist-run gallery in SoHo in 1970. The footage contains dance performances by the artist, Tina Girouard, Keith Sonnier and other friends, activating the precarious architecture during the opening day.
Curated by Gabriela Salgado.
Rebellious Modernities presents physical and emotional spaces that engage the senses. Four perspectives destabilise the modernist parameters that underpin architectural value.
Inspired by the concept of ‘anarchitecture’, a term coined by the late artist and architect Gordon Matta-Clark (1943–1978), the exhibition includes new works by Auckland-based artists Sosefina Andy, Matt Coldicutt and Yonel Watene. Against the backdrop of New Zealand’s ongoing housing crisis and the rise of homelessness worldwide, the artists propose a rebellious deconstruction of notions of private and public space, building life strategies for survival, resistance and the recovery of memory. Their at times precarious structures evidence modernism’s failures and hangover: excess leading to waste and unsuitable adaptations to other geographies. Most vitally, the works celebrate collectivism and political auto-construction.
The exhibition includes Matta-Clark’s 1972 film Open House, which records the artist’s industrial waste container built with discarded construction materials between 98 and 112 Greene Street, New York, where he co-founded the first artist-run gallery in SoHo in 1970. The footage contains dance performances by the artist, Tina Girouard, Keith Sonnier and other friends, activating the precarious architecture during the opening day.
