Architecture]]> Design]]> 18 Jul 2019, Thu - 17 Nov 2019, Sun 12:00 PM - 07:00 PM
The Single Screen, Block 43 Malan Road

In the early 1970s, Siah Armajani’s experimentation with computer-based graphics paved the way not only for a new aesthetic field, but also expanded his artistic practice to new territories. Taking his film work on the exploration of structures and lines using computer graphics as a point of departure, this film series expands into a presentation of films by other filmmakers/ artists in a similar theme of “line structure” and three others of Armajani’s tropes of interests: bridges, houses, and gardens. Just as Armajani’s Dictionary for Building (1974–75) deconstructs the typology of domestic architecture, these films explore new meanings of functional, social, and visual concepts of architecture and space.

Event
, 1970

Computer-generated 16mm film transferred to digital file, b&w, silent, 6 min 41 sec.
Collection Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, Gift of the artist, 2015.

To Perceive 10,000 Different Squares in 6 Minutes and 55 Seconds, 1970 
Computer-generated 16mm film transferred to digital file, b&w, silent, 7 min 37 sec.
Collection Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, Gift of the artist, 2015.

Before/After, 1970
Computer-generated 16mm film transferred to digital file, b&w, silent, 1 min 50 sec.
Collection Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, Gift of the artist, 2015.

Inside/Outside, 1970
Computer-generated 16mm film transferred to digital file, b&w, silent, 1 min 40 sec.
Collection Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, Gift of the artist, 2015.

Rotating Line, 1970
Computer-generated 16mm film transferred to digital file, b&w, silent, 1 min 26 sec.
Collection Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, Gift of the artist, 2015.

Line, 1970
Computer-generated 16mm film transferred to digital file, b&w, silent, 1 min 16 sec.
Courtesy of the artist and Rossi & Rossi, Hong Kong.

Since the 1960s, Siah Armajani has explored the use of technology as a medium as well as in the intersection of art with science. In 1970, he produced a series of experimental films using a computer capable of printing on 16mm celluloid at the Hybrid Computer Laboratory, University of Minnesota. In these films he generated moving lines and shapes using mathematical formulae and computer programming to create the illusion of three-dimensional space and time on one-dimensional surfaces that ultimately point to the functionalism of space, a consistent thread in Armajani’s work.

Event is an explicit example of such a connection as it brings together the notions of architecture’s social space through texts, equations, and diagrams. To Perceive 10,000 Different Squares in 6 Minutes and 55 Seconds presents ten thousand squares, each in a single frame in descending order of size; with the illusion of a single square hovering in space.Before/After suggests spatial and temporal ambiguity, depicted by two synchronised animated representations of movements over time. Inside/Outside explores the function of boundaries and the concept of closed and open systems in a space. Rotating Line illustrates the blurring of dimensional states within a space through the transition of a single point into a line that subsequently appears to rotate in and out of the screen. In Line, Armajani reflects upon the inadequacy of painting and sculpture in expressing ideas through the most basic aesthetic form.

These six films will be played on loop during opening hours from 18 July to 17 November, 2019. During this time, a presentation of films by other filmmakers/ artists, grouped according to the themes Line Structure, Bridges, Houses, and Gardens, will also be shown in conjunction with Siah Armajani’s films.

A public programme of Siah Armajani: Spaces for the Public. Spaces for Democracy.

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Siah Armajani]]> North America]]>
Siah Armajani. Spaces for the Public Spaces for Democracy Exhibition Guide]]> Siah Armajani. Spaces for the Public Spaces for Democracy Exhibition Guide]]> Siah Armajani]]> Susanne Pfeffer]]> Mario Kramer]]> Fabio Rossi]]> Josie Browne]]> Barbara Armajani]]> Guide]]> Asia]]> North America]]> Public Sphere]]> Politics]]> Public Art]]> Siah Armajani]]> Sculpture]]> Drawing]]> Asia]]> North America]]> Siah Armajani. Spaces for the Public Spaces for Democracy]]> Public Sphere]]> Politics]]> Siah Armajani merges architecture and conceptual art in his sculptures, drawings, and public installations. Informed by democratic ideologies and inspired by American vernacular architecture, his works include gathering spaces for communality, emphasizing the “nobility of usefulness.” His highly acclaimed public art and architectural projects have included bridges, gardens, and outdoor structures, that have been commissioned and presented worldwide. A retrospective featuring his artistic career spanning over more than five decades was recently on view at the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, and inaugurates in March at The MET Breuer, New York.

Taking centre stage in the exhibition, the large-scale installation Sacco & Vanzetti Reading Room #3 (1988) will unfold along its several comprising elements, such as two rooms, tables, chairs, and racks with books, magazines, and pencils noticeably arranged like spikes. The Reading Room is designed as a functional and inviting space for the visitors of the exhibition to use. The books populating the space are by or about the poets, philosophers, and political activists Armajani has dedicated different works to, many from his Tomb series. Initiated by Armajani in 1972, the Tomb series include drawings and models, of which seven are also on view in the exhibition.

The list of authors includes: Theodor Adorno, Hannah Arendt, Walter Benjamin, John Berryman, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, John Dewey, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Luigi Galleani, Emma Goldman, Hafez, Martin Heidegger, Thomas Jefferson, Frank O’Hara, Sylvia Plath, Edgar Allan Poe, Arthur Rimbaud, Richard Rorty, Sacco and Vanzetti, Ahmad Shamlou, Henry David Thoreau, Alfred North Whitehead, Walt Whitman, and Nima Yooshij.

READING GROUPS

NTU CCA Singapore has selected books by and about the philosophers, poets, and political activists that Siah Armajani has dedicated works to, as part of the installation, which is designed for use by the visiting public as a functional and inviting space. Throughout the exhibition period, the installation will host reading groups or other events that respond to the displayed books.

OPEN CALL

In addition, NTU CCA Singapore is seeking interested individuals, groups, or organisations to engage with the artist’s works. The Sacco and Vanzetti Reading Room #3 is available to be used for readings, gatherings, discussions, workshops, or other events. Interested parties can appropriate the installation and exhibition space, including the books accompanying the installation, and respond to the exhibition and its title, the artist and the work, or related topics.


Siah Armajani: Spaces for the Public. Spaces for Democracy. is curated by Ute Meta Bauer, Founding Director of the NTU CCA Singapore, and Professor, School of Art, Design and Media, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore.

The exhibition is made possible by generous loans from the MMK Museum for Modern Art, Frankfurt, and Rossi & Rossi, Hong Kong.

Special thank you to Susanne Pfeffer, Director, and Mario Kramer, Head of Collection, MMK, as well as Fabio Rossi and Josie Browne, project liaison.

With gratitude to Siah Armajani and Barbara Armajani.]]>
Siah Armajani]]> Ute Meta Bauer]]> MMK Museum for Modern Art]]> Rossi & Rossi]]> Sculpture]]> Painting]]> Installation]]> Object]]> Asia]]> North America]]>