Vito Acconci and Adrien Allred and Adam Jakubowski (Acconci Studio), Rossella Biscotti, Kevin van Braak, Tim Ivison and Julia Tcharfas, Chosil Kil, Jani Ruscica ~ (Architecture in Words Only): 16 February–19 March 2011
RELOCATION INAUGURATION
2nd Floor, 33 White Church Lane, London, E1 7QR
Hilary Crisp presents an inaugural group exhibition focusing on the social histories and urban features of East London. Relocating from Fitzrovia (W1) to Whitechapel (E1), the project invites artists to engage with the area’s built environment, landscape and city planning narratives.
Download ~ exhibition index
Here we are, at the possible beginning of a project. Here we are, in the mountains. In the one hand, we’re so high up, we’re feeling woozy, we’re feeling light-headed. On the other hand, we’re in the land of farmers, we’re on a ground of stone and rock. We come face to face with hard-headed reality. Someone from New York, who knew the place, said, “Look at the mountains as you approach them, look with your eyes, and the mountains are green. But then look again, this time look with your mind. And now the mountains are blue.” I looked with my mind, I followed somebody else’s mind, come into my mind. When you see the mountains close up – when you’re much too close to see from afar – you’re in the middle of rocks, and browns and greens, the only blue is the sky. You’re at the top of a slope, but there’s another slope beyond. You’re outside, but it’s as if you’re in a cave. You’re out in the open, but protected by the wall of a slope. It’s as if you have come home. We can’t just throw a house down here, we can’t just build a house up anywhere. We wouldn’t want to, it would roll down the hill. We have to coax a house out of the ground, let the house roll out of the hill. Slip out of the hill. Slope out of the hill. At the same time, we can’t build a house from another time, we can build from there – but we can’t build from then. We can only build from now. The land remains but time has changed. Of course the land can stand up to the changing time. But all the while the changing time rethinks the land; redoes the land; renews the land. We can’t build like animals – that’s not to say we can necessarily build better than animals – but we can’t help building differently than animals. At the same time, though, we can learn the principles of animal building and build with the principles of animals, those principles transformed all the while by our own and our tenure of the times we are in. We can’t build organically. We might be part of nature – but we really aren’t nature. All the better, good riddance to all that. We’re in a computer-driven world, and we have to learn to think with the computer...
-Vito Acconci*, Architecture In Words Only (2006); For Your Ears Only
Until 19 March. For more information contact ~ gallery@hilarycrisp.com
Above image: Jani Ruscica, Travelogue, 2010, B/W 16mm film transferred to HD, stereo sound, single channel projection (w/ framed screenprint), 8 min. loop
*25 FEBRUARY 2011 – Vito Acconci: From Words to Action to Architecture – Bartlett School of Architecture, International Lecture Series: Christopher Ingold Auditorium, Christopher Ingold Building, 20 Gordon Street, London, WC1H 0AJ – No Ticket Required, 6:30pm
Installation view, February 2011 ~ Tim Ivison and Julia Tcharfas, Those That Will Work, Those That Cannot Work, and Those That Will Not Work, 2011 / Jani Ruscica, Travelogue, 2010 ~ Hilary Crisp, London
Installation view, February 2011 ~ Acconci Studio, ARCS OF PARKS, BUILDINGS & FLAMES (WAR OF THE SPORTS WORLDS) 2012 Olympic Park Proposal (rejected), 2011 / Tim Ivison and Julia Tcharfas, Those That Will Work, Those That Cannot Work, and Those That Will Not Work, 2011 ~ Hilary Crisp, London
detail ~ Acconci Studio, ARCS OF PARKS, BUILDINGS & FLAMES (WAR OF THE SPORTS WORLDS) 2012 Olympic Park Proposal [rejected]), 2011
Installation view, February 2011 ~ Chosil Kil, After John Stow (1603), 2011 / Tim Ivison and Julia Tcharfas, Those That Will Work, Those That Cannot Work, and Those That Will Not Work, 2011 / Kevin van Braak, Untitled, 2007-present ~ Hilary Crisp, London
detail ~ Rossella Biscotti, Anarchy at the Bar, 2011
detail ~ Chosil Kil, After John Stow (1603), 2011