Aesthetica Issue 92 by Aesthetica Magazine

Aesthetica

THE ART & CULTURE MAGAZINE

www.aestheticamagazine.com

Issue 92 December / January 2019

POWERFUL STORYTELLING

SCIENTIFIC PERSPECTIVE

MORE TO THE PICTURE

Doug Aitken’s latest installations experiment with the gallery space

Pieter Henket and Eva Vonk highlight narratives and tradition in the Congo

Eddo Hartmann takes viewers on a journey through Dutch ecosystems

Dawoud Bey’s portraits connect to the wider sense of community

UK £5.95 Europe €11.95 USA $15.49

ART FOR CONNECTIVITY

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Aesthetica

THE ART & CULTURE MAGAZINE

www.aestheticamagazine.com

Issue 92 December / January 2019

ART FOR CONNECTIVITY

POWERFUL STORYTELLING

SCIENTIFIC PERSPECTIVE

MORE TO THE PICTURE

Doug Aitken’s latest installations experiment with the gallery space

Pieter Henket and Eva Vonk highlight narratives and tradition in the Congo

Eddo Hartmann takes viewers on a journey through Dutch ecosystems

Dawoud Bey’s portraits connect to the wider sense of community

Welcome

UK £5.95 Europe €11.95 USA $15.49

Editor’s Note

On the Cover Reflected mountain ranges. Splashes of water hanging in mid-air. Seats suspended in glassy lakes. Julia Morozova’s images seamlessly complement natural elements with bold, colourful fashion collections. Each story contains a multitude of textures, arrangements and patterns. (p.56) Cover Image: Faded Forests. Photographer: Julia Morozova. Model: Alya Spyr @monster. Stylist: Francesca Martorelli & Rafaela Rusca. Art direction: Vladimir Soto. Mua: Monica Cena.

Innovation keeps me going. I feel so very honoured to see so many wonderful artworks on a daily basis. It gives me inspiration. It takes me to new places, teaches me, makes me laugh and cry. Constantly, I am reminded by the shared experience of what it means to be a human being in 2019. We all know that the world has transformed, yes, through technology – and with it comes the idea of progress – but I’ve started to think about progress and what really defines it. We can communicate with anyone, anywhere – but the constant desire to check your phone from the minute you wake up until the minute you go to bed doesn’t come without repercussions. Once we move into 5G, this is the future. We are evolving emotionally. This can’t be understated in terms of how this will affect humanity – and future generations. Politically, the world has been in turmoil since 2016: the year of the Referendum and Trump making his way into the White House. We’ve seen and heard things that shouldn’t be happening. This is the 21st century – a time of progress. We shouldn’t be seeing women’s rights surrounding their own bodies being revoked, and the climate crisis being denied. It’s supposed to be better now, right? This issue of Aesthetica invites you to engage with the key themes of our times. The artists included are making sense of the world through new visual narratives. Doug Aitken’s latest installations explore the space between physical and virtual worlds, commenting on the ways that communication has changed. Eva Vonk and Pieter Henket consider the role that the Congo Basin plays within the wider geological balance, drawing attention to the importance of oral culture, history and tradition. In photography, there are seven outstanding practitioners who present bold and exciting series. They question the idea of home and identity, highlight the beauty of everyday objects and play with the notion of anonymity. Finally, the Last Words goes to Sarah Cook, Curator, who discusses Somerset House’s latest exhibition, 24/7. The show looks at our non-stop world and asks us to pause. Cherie Federico

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Art 24 More to the Picture Portraits reveal information about the human condition; Dawoud Bey explores the dialogues between sitter, photographer and community.

30 Subtle Framing Ian Howorth’s works slip from indoor to outdoor through a nuanced persuasion of colour. Gradient sunsets, neon signs and diffused lamps feature.

40 Fluidity and Invention From the centenary of the Bauhaus to post-war Brutalism, a new publication celebrates an age of innovation and experimentation with concrete.

46 Playful Silhouettes So AsA is influenced by the street activity on the island of Corsica, catching the shadows of strangers as they pass by alleys and walkways.

56 Qualities of Daylight Julia Morozova plays with natural elements and clean-cut tailoring; bold fashion collections are paired with glassy lakes and piercing sunlight.

66 Art for Connectivity Doug Aitken is at the frontier of 21st century communication, presenting imaginative worlds that are between the physical and the virtual.

72 Panning the Landscape Broken ice. Snow-capped mountains. Guillaume Simoneau moves around Canada’s open planes, from Saint Pierre and Miquelon to Pond Inlet.

82 Scientific Perspective Investigating the work of environmental scientists, Eddo Hartmann urges viewers to consider the wider impact on the planet from the ground up.

88 Deserted Locations How do we define home? What happens when a house is left behind? Gohar Dashti’s works reveal the power of nature to consume and conquer.

98 Powerful Storytelling The Congo Basin is a tropical rainforest second only in size to the Amazon. Eva Vonk and Pieter Henket uncover its traditions and oral culture.

104 Distant Suburbia Thomas Jordan is influenced by the northwest Chicago suburbs, looking for moments of clarity as the sun sets and quietude falls upon the day.

114 Animating the Everyday Olivia Jeczmyk experiments with images as a way to breathe life into objects. Her photographs place items subtly amongst minimal set designs.

Exhibitions

Film

Music

130 Gallery Reviews This issue covers Maroesjka Lavigne’s Lost Lands at Robert Mann Gallery, as well as a group show of female practitioners at NMWA, Washington DC.

134 Inspired by Ideas The Aesthetica Short Film Festival returned this November, with over 400 films in competition. Read about this year’s winners and key events.

136 Personal Evolution Alani Charal (moniker ALA.NI) has found a niche in a capella. Her latest album, ACCA, samples and loops vocals, creating percussive basslines.

Books

Artists’ Directory

Last Words

138 Radical Design Photographer and architect Kris Provoost depicts rapid growth in China, spanning buildings from Rem Koolhaas, Zaha Hadid and Ole Scheeren.

152 Inside this Issue This edition’s directory experiments with alternate perspectives. Multimedia practices offer different points of view, using materials in new ways.

162 Somerset House 24/7 is concerned with a non-stop world; it offers a picture of a current state of distraction, asking audiences to rethink the way they live and rest.

Aesthetica Magazine is trade marked worldwide. © Aesthetica Magazine Ltd 2019.

The Aesthetica Team: Editor: Cherie Federico Assistant Editor: Kate Simpson Digital Content Writer: Eleanor Sutherland Staff Writer: Olivia Hampton

Advertisement Enquiries: Jeremy Appleyard (0044) (0)844 568 2001 advertising@aestheticamagazine.com

Advertising Coordinator: Jeremy Appleyard Marketing Coordinator: Hannah Skidmore Artists’ Directory Coordinator: Katherine Smira

Artists’ Directory Enquiries: Katherine Smira (0044) (0)844 568 2001 directory@aestheticamagazine.com

Published by Cherie Federico and Dale Donley. Aesthetica Magazine PO Box 371, York, YO23 1WL, UK (0044) (0)844 568 2001 Newstrade Distribution: Warners Group Publications plc. Gallery & Specialist Distribution: Central Books.

Production Director: Dale Donley Operations Manager: Cassandra Weston Designer: Laura Tordoff Marketing & Administration Assistant: Kathryn Pearson Festival Coordinator / Technical Advisor: Andy Guy Intern: Kat McCullan

Contributors: Alexandra Genova, Jessica Mairs, Diane Smyth, Charlotte R-A, Gunseli Yalcinkaya.

Printed by Warners Midlands plc. Reviewers: Kyle Bryony, Matt Swain, James Mottram, Daniel Pateman, Chris Webb, Hunter Dukes, Erik Martiny, Charlotte R-A, Robyn Sian Cusworth, Jennifer Sauer, Gunseli Yalcinkaya, Ashton Chandler Guyatt.

Subscriptions: subscriptions@aestheticamagazine.com (0044) (0)844 568 2001 General Enquiries: info@aestheticamagazine.com Press Releases: pr@aestheticamagazine.com Follow us: aestheticamagazine.com facebook.com/aestheticamagazine twitter.com/AestheticaMag pinterest.com/AestheticaMag instagram.com/AestheticaMag

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Lawrence Abu Hamdan, installation view of Walled Unwalled in The Tanks, Tate Modern London 2018. Photo by Tate Photography.

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Engaging Installations TURNER PRIZE This year’s four shortlisted Turner Prize candidates focus on the boundaries, real or imagined, that divide us from one another. They offer new worlds of contemplation and sensory stimulation. For the group exhibition, presented outside of London, as is the tradition every other year, Colombian-born Oscar Murillo (b. 1986) has blacked out a huge bay window at Turner Contemporary in Margate. He has achieved this with a makeshift canvas curtain saturated with paint marks. The piece faces the absent view of the North Sea that inspired William Turner (1775-1851) – whose name is leant to both the award and the gallery. The papier-mâché effigies of Collective Conscience offer a cast of workers and migrants surrounded by unstretched painting. It is a visionary work that reflects upon the socio-economic realities of capitalism. The other candidates also present both critical and creative perspectives. Spanning multidisciplinary techniques, they utilise art as a mechanism to understand our changing world. Lawrence Abu Hamdan (b. 1985), who calls himself a “private ear,” addresses the structural qualities of sound with three time-based installations. Collaborating with Amnesty International and the Turner Prize-nominee collective Forensic Architecture, Abu Hamdan offers “earwitness” testimonies. He recreates physical and conceptual space through the audio memories of six survivors from the Saydnaya military prison, located outside Damascus, which has been used to hold

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civilian detainees and anti-regime rebels. The prisoners de- “The candidates veloped an acute sensitivity to sound because they were offer a range of kept in darkness, or had their eyes covered. Jordan-born critical and creative Abu Hamdan calculated that detainees, under constant sur- perspectives. Spanning veillance and facing death if caught speaking, would have multidisciplinary to whisper 19 decibels quieter than usual in order to com- techniques, they municate undetected. Abu Hamdan’s projects articulate their redefine the stories through fluid movements between sound, memory, parameters of art design and language. “Sound can’t be contained, you can’t as a mechanism put it in a box. It will always leak,” he explains. to understand our The layered social histories of Northern Ireland, and changing world.” the role of women, are at the heart of Helen Cammock’s (b. 1970) work. The shortlisted project, The Long Note, is an aptly named narrative film that uses both interviews and archival footage to depict the overlooked role of women in the civil rights movement in Derry, Northern Ireland. Tai Shani (b. 1976) creates an allegorical city of women filled with imaginary characters. Velvet arms, geometric stairs, disembodied green hands and hanging red moons are just some of the protagonists. These worlds are dark, fantastical, utopian and reflective. They make an effort, Shani says, to Turner uncover “what can be salvaged from a history of femininity, Contemporary, Margate to think about ways out of where we are now.” The title refers Until 12 January to an Assyrian queen who became a mythical figure thanks to a reign that helped stabilise the empire after war. turnercontemporary.org

Illuminating Audiences CANARY WHARF WINTER LIGHTS FESTIVAL

Squidsoup, Aeolian Light, 2014-2015. 10m x 10m x 5m.

Lips are the one of the most sensitive parts of the body, thanks at specific intervals to form the word, reflecting the transient, “For its sixth edition, to more than a million nerve endings. Objects of desire, they easily manipulated nature of online information. Each drop the Canary Wharf evoke lust and sensuality but also serve as the delivery vehi- of water becomes a liquid pixel of sorts, or a representative of festival presents light works by practitioners cles for words and innermost emotions. Taiwanese collective a bit – the smallest unit of measurement of data. Transforming an outdoor seating experience, LBO Li- from around the UxU studio plays with these different associations in Desire (2017-2018), made from 1,500 LED lights. This imaginative chtbankobjekte’s Lightbenches encourages pedestrians to world, set against piece is amongst more than 25 other large-scale installations sit and converse with strangers. Illuminated by hundreds of the background of LEDs, the benches are composed of translucent opal white the business district’s populating London’s annual Winter Lights festival. For its sixth edition, the Canary Wharf festival presents light acrylic glass light beams, each measuring six millimetres. bright towers. Some works by practitioners from around the world, set against the These weather-resistant strips change colour every 2.5 min- are marking their background of the business district’s bright towers. Some are utes. Many audiences first check whether the seat or backrest debut in the UK.” marking their debut in the UK alongside commissioned works is hot before sitting on light, though they do not release any and popular pieces from previous years. In an early preview, heat at all. It is an interesting remark upon human behaviour. designed to attract the broader public of all ages and back- “The emotional interaction of light and colours should take grounds, a glowing neon sculpture spelling out Mi-e dor de the park bench out of its conventional context and open up new perceptions,” explains designer Bernd Spiecker. tine (“I miss you” in Romanian) was installed in November. Another effort to challenge an increasing sense of disconTechnology plays a key role in most of the works, such as Julius Popp’s (b. 1973) Bit.Fall. It comprises a waterfall of cas- nect is Gali Lucas’s Absorbed by Light. The sculpture, a colcading words obtained from live online newsfeeds. It trans- laboration with Karoline Hinz, shows three people sitting on lates the never-ending flow of information in the digital age a bench ignoring each other whilst completely immersed in into a visual tapestry. A single word appears at a time on the their mobile phones, which shine a dim glow on their faces. work’s large digital curtain before rapidly dissolving to make The harsh, white light from the devices gives an eerie atmos- Canary Wharf, London way for another. The words are generated by a computer phere to the swiping, typing trio. In this way, the event is self- 16-25 January programme that filters relevant terms using a statistical algo- conscious, reflective, immediate. It brings audiences together rithm. A control unit then releases hundreds of drops of water to sit, dance, play and absorb the colourful illuminations. canarywharf.com

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Sea Lane House, Angmering-on-Sea, West Sussex, 1937 by architects Yorke and Breuer. © Dell & Wainwright, RIBA Collections.

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Collaborative Philosophy BEYOND BAUHAUS: MODERNISM IN BRITAIN The 1930s were a particularly fertile moment in British architectural history. Bauhaus alumna Marcel Breuer, alongside Walter Gropius and László Moholy-Nagy, lived and worked in Britain after fleeing Nazi Germany, where they profoundly influenced the development of modernist architecture. On the occasion of the centenary, RIBA, London, sheds light on new critical ways of thinking about design and tradition. Illustrations, sketches, personal photographs, correspondence and archival films attest to the depth of the partnerships struck during the trio’s time in the UK, lasting from just 1934 to 1937. Gropius, Moholy-Nagy and Breuer all pushed for an uncompromisingly modern aesthetic. Their designs were reviled in many quarters in Britain – few buildings in the country clearly identified with the Bauhaus. However, by the time the three left for the USA, in 1937, Britain was developing a reputation as Europe’s hub for innovative structures that tied into the philosophy of modernist avant-garde. Their stay in the UK was short-lived, but inherently powerful, much like the Bauhaus itself, which remains a critical influence on the school of art, architecture and design. The functionalist legacy of the Bauhaus is especially notable in postwar designs, presenting a collaborative philosophy that deployed contemporary materials and technologies with a clear sense of social purpose. These ideas were especially championed when architects including Mary

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Crowley (later Medd) and Denys Lasdun were tasked with “The functionalist creating social housing and public infrastructure after WWII. legacy of the The exhibition delves into many branches of blueprints, Bauhaus is especially occupational conversations and imagined plans. In a short- notable in postwar lived dialogue between Gropius and Maxwell Fry, they designs, presenting a jointly produced various drawings, including sketches for collaborative philosophy the renowned Isokon building, now tucked away in a quiet that deployed corner of North London. Also known as the Lawn Road Flats, modern materials the structure boasts horizontal strip windows and overhang- and technologies ing concrete balconies. The designs, at the time, proved too with a clear sense radical to leave the page. They adopted a vision of urban of social purpose.” living that was affordable, communal and innovative. However, though the ideas were highly progressive, the version of the Isokon block of flats that did make it to Hampstead was conceived for the middle class. Its past residents included Bauhaus members, artists, authors like Agatha Christie and even a Soviet spy, as with Arnold Deutsch. RIBA’s show also examines contributions from a group of pioneering women. Little known and rarely shown works by Elizabeth Denby, Sadie Speight, Margaret Blanco-White, Norah Aiton and Betty Scott demonstrate how important female architects were amongst their male counterparts, RIBA, London giving them fair representation amongst the names associ- Until 2 February ated with the innovative Bauhaus movement. This exhibition provides an important cross-section of British design. riba.org

Inquisitive Photography SALLY MANN: A THOUSAND CROSSINGS

Sally Mann (American, born 1951), The Turn, 2005, gelatin silver print. Private collection. © Sally Mann.

In December 2017, Sally Mann (b. 1951) invited Bill T. Jones the 1955 murder of 14-year-old African American Emmett “Mann, who has (b. 1952) for a photo session at her country home in Virginia. Till, accused of seducing a white woman. In another, dust spent much of Death – its menacing approach or dark legacy – looms large has formed on the plate, creating bullet-like dots on her career asking in Mann’s work, and it’s no surprise to find the dancer-chore- 2003’s Battlefields, Cold Harbor (Battle), a reminder of the unsettling questions, ographer’s high cheekbones made skull-like behind the lens. destruction that once was a cry against nature’s indifference. documented the The exhibition opens in chronological order, where Mann’s southern landscape “Almost a death mask,” she concludes in a video of the twoday encounter, shown in the major survey making its sixth career really started, with the Immediate Family series. This out of “shame and included portraits of her husband and three young children, some inchoate sense of and final stop at High Museum of Art, Atlanta. Sitter and photographer, both in their late 60s, are keenly all caught in intimate, unguarded moments. The works cata- accountability.” She aware they have entered their final chapter. Growing up in pulted Mann to fame in 1992, depicting family members in focused on markers the American south, Mann’s work has often been concerned various stages of undress and activity at their remote summer of a violent past.” with slavery and the racism that replaced it. Jones, in part, in- cabin – open and vulnerable. A quarter-century later, the inspired her monumental portraits of black men as she sought tense controversy generated in the midst of America’s culto reach across the “seemingly untraversable chasm of race.” ture wars by these images of youth – latent with sensuality, In order to delve into these still prescient issues, Mann re- violence and even death – seems a distant past. Yes, the blood streaming from Emmett’s Bloody Nose (1991) sorts to 19th century techniques and makes her own prints, at a time when most artists have replaced the dark room with an or Virginia’s seemingly lifeless body in Last Light (1990) are inkjet printer. She pours syrupy collodion on a glass plate still startling. But, contextualised, they appear as brutally from her large format camera, then dips it in silver nitrate. It’s honest depictions of fleeting hedonistic moments made with bulky, messy work, but Mann embraces the imperfections of great maternal care and awareness of lurking danger. Mann uses the worn, cloudy surface of ambrotypes, or collodion the materials, calling upon the “angel of uncertainty.” Mann, who has spent much of her career asking unsettling positives, to gaze at her own mortality in often solarised or High Museum of Art, Atlanta questions, documented the southern landscape out of overexposed self-portraits after a riding accident left her Until 2 February “shame and some inchoate sense of accountability.” She bed-ridden. This show is a groundbreaking finale to Mann’s focused on markers of a violent past, including the site of longstanding tour of important institutions across the USA. high.org

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Image: Winter at Tantora.

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Cross-Cultural Dialogues WINTER AT TANTORA Over the course of 12 weekends from December 2019 to crossroads of trade along the incense route between Egypt March, an art, music and culture extravaganza descends upon and the historical region of South Arabia. A necropolis was the Al-Ula region home to Saudi Arabia’s first UNESCO World carved out of stone in Hegra, making it the Nabatean kingHeritage Site, Hegra. It is anticipated that over 40,000 people dom’s second largest settlement after Petra. “It was a port of will attend the Winter at Tantora Festival – sizable crowd num- trade and a gateway between cultures, enabling dialogue bers predicted by art exhibitions and performances that deliver and diversity,” explained Amr Al-Madani, CEO of the Royal mass appeal through soft, lush music. Shopping, dining and Commission for Al-Ula. “With the festival, we are celebrating folk culture experiences, dubbed a “feast for the senses” by Al-Ula’s historic role in this region as well as its long tradition organisers, further entice others to make the journey to this of bringing together varied voices and ideas.” ochre desert landscape dotted with sandstone outcrops. For those interested in music, a celebration of the 250th Amongst new and innovative artworks, there’s a sense of anniversary of Beethoven’s birth takes place in January with opulence in the accompanying events: a hot air balloon performances by French groups including the Orchestre Nafestival, vintage aircraft flights, meals prepared by Michelin- tional du Capitole de Toulouse. Egyptian composer, pianist starred chefs, traditional souks, pop-ups and tours of ancient and conductor Omar Khairat performs in December, whilst archaeological sites. Visitors can enjoy this incongruous mix the Caracalla dance performance Jameel Buthainah that of experiences alongside performances of pop, opera and narrates traditional folklore takes place in February. The classical music. During its inaugural edition last year, the 500-seat concert hall was built with shimmering walls of mirWinter at Tantora Festival welcomed more than 37,000 visi- rors to resemble a mirage emerging from the landscape. Festors who travelled far and wide to take in blind Italian tenor tivalgoers will get a taste of Al-Ula, its arid land, vast canyons Andrea Bocelli, Lebanese soprano Majida El Roumi, Chinese and 200,000 years of history before it officially opens to the concert pianist Lang Lang and Greek composer Yanni. public as a tourist destination in October 2020. In an effort to bring ancient cities of the area back to life, The ancient site and diverse programming firmly places imaging technology and Augmented Reality transport this event on the list of the most innovative winter festivals visitors to the 1st century AD, when Hegra and Dadan’s pre- – bringing ancient cities and monuments to life, whilst explorIslamic communities were thriving in an oasis culture at the ing some of the latest in virtual, expansive technologies.

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“In an effort to bring ancient cities of the area back to life, imaging technology and Augmented Reality transport visitors to the 1st century AD, when Hegra and Dadan’s preIslamic communities were thriving.”

Al-Ula, Saudi Arabia 19 December - 7 March experiencealula.com

Celebrating Female Practitioners MAX MARA ART PRIZE

“For these practitioners – women living and working in the UK – the shows mark their first major surveys. ‘For too long women have had to fight for recognition,’ says Whitechapel Director Iwona Blazwick. This puts prize-winners on the map.”

Winner announced in spring 2020. Whitechapel Gallery, London, and Collezione Maramotti, Reggio Emilia. whitechapelgallery.org collezionemaramotti.org

Hanna Tuulikki, Away with the Birds (performance), 2014. Image: © A Boyd.

The long-standing under-representation of women in art inOn the tiny Hebridean island of Canna, 10 women face the wind and chant as they stand on a wooden platform sub- dustry, especially in the first half of the 20th century, inspires merged in water. They wear black dresses and red tights to Schwab’s wider practice. Her pieces are heavily patterned as a resemble the oystercatchers and other waders, wildfowl and result, having often collaborated with ceramicists and weavers. seabirds whose calls they imitate. This tapestry of sound, In the process, she explores how “knowledge can be shared.” rooted in Gaelic mimetic tradition, is part of Away with the Katz, who works primarily in painting and ceramics, begins Birds (2014) by Hanna Tuulikki (b. 1982), one of five short- the process with a simple daily gesture that is also incredlisted artists for the Max Mara Art Prize for Women. ibly idiosyncratic: handwriting. “It is my sensibility coming The only visual art award for women in the UK, the prize is through,” she explains. “It is the possibilities and the limitdue to be announced in early 2020, as a six-month Italian lessness of painting itself that allows for this full breadth of residency to create a new project presented during solo ex- expression.” Rejecting assumptions that self-portraiture is hibitions the following year at London’s Whitechapel Gallery autobiographical, she combines personal images with more and Collezione Maramotti in Reggio Emilia, Italy. For these universal ones. In turn, voice and gesture are at the heart of practitioners – women living and working in the UK – the Tuulikki’s practice, which spans visual arts, music and perforshows mark their first major surveys. “For too long women mance with roots in traditional cultures. have had to fight for recognition,” says Whitechapel Director Talbot’s women, whether sculptures or paintings, search for Iwona Blazwick. This puts prize-winners on the map. meaning through their faceless gazes. “In my mind, those figFor the eighth edition, Allison Katz (b. 1980), Katie Schwab ures are me … They’re how I imagine myself from an internal (b. 1985), Tai Shani (b. 1976), Emma Talbot (b. 1969) and Tuu- view,” she explains. Their lack of facial features allows viewers likki are shortlisted. Central to the work of all five competitors to project their own personal narratives onto the protagonists. is the physical body and feminine experience. The previous Mythical installations populate Shani’s approach to what she winner is Helen Cammock (b. 1970), who created Che si può calls “world-making as a feminist strategy.” The bulk of her fare (What can be done), a multimedia project that takes its title work emerges out of text-based material placed within reimfrom a 1664 Aria by composer Barbara Strozzi (1619-1677) agined or dismantled architectural structures and body parts. and revolves around expressions of emotion in Italian art. Performances in those complex spaces bring them to life.

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10 to See RECOMMENDED EXHIBITIONS THIS SEASON

This selection of exhibitions spans renowned institutions such as NGV Melbourne, ICA London and Foam Amsterdam. They consider some of the most pressing issues of our time – notions of belonging, the presence of borderlands and the representation of dual heritages.

Lorenzo Vitturi: Materia Impura Foam, Amsterdam | Until 19 January

foam.org In a new series entitled Caminantes (2019), Lorenzo Vitturi (b. 1980) draws on his father’s journey in the 1960s from Italy to Peru. Once settled, his father opened a Murano glass factory and, soon after, met Lorenzo’s mother. Vitturi combines objects obtained during trips to each of the two countries. They are laden with local meaning and contextual readings, combining glass with a variety of raw materials to create temporary interventions. In a Venetian Lagoon, he offers a series of sculptures with items from both locations.

Petrina Hicks: Bleached Gothic NGV, Melbourne | Until 29 March

ngv.vic.gov.au At first glance, Petrina Hicks’s (b. 1972) images seem both pristine and hyperreal, echoing her past as a commercial photographer. Behind all the veneer, the Australian artist charts the human experience. She takes an inexorable path toward decay and death by revealing physical marks of trauma such as fading bruises or wounds. Her first major survey features more than 40 photographic prints and video pieces created between 2003 and 2019. They primarily feature young women, whilst taking inspiration from mythology and art history.

Honey-Suckle Company: Omnibus Institute of Contemporary Arts, London | Until 12 January

ica.art Honey-Suckle Company expresses itself through fleeting fashion, music and art interventions focused on shared consciousness. The collective was founded in 1994 as Berlin charted a path forward following reunification. The group’s first official exhibition includes a new multisensory installation at the nexus of a theatrical set and a post-apocalyptic archaeological dig and NEUBAND (2000-ongoing), featuring mannequins wearing Kazimir Malevichinspired geometric outfits with odd appendages and self-playing instruments.

The Place I Call Home Ffotogallery, Cardiff | Until 21 December

ffotogallery.org Reflecting on shifting notions of home, photographers based in the UK, UAE, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Bahrain challenge stereotypes through explorations of culture and heritage. The show, commissioned by the British Council and curated by David Drake, has stops in the UK and the Gulf’s Arab states. Sara al-Obaidly chronicles the dizzying economic boom that has transformed Doha with desolate landscapes and soon-to-be-developed deserts. Other artists include Mohammed al-Kouh, Mai al-Moataz and Gillian Robertson.

Walls: Defend, Divide and the Divine Annenberg Space for Photography, Los Angeles | Until 29 December

annenbergphotospace.org Throughout human history, walls have defined how people live, where they can go and how they distinguish one another. They provide places of reflection, imprisonment, safety and segregation. This exhibition is split into six sections: Delineation, Defense, Deterrent, The Divine, Decoration, and The Invisible. These categories overlap and change meaning according to context, much like walls. More than 70 artists document and probe the myriad definitions and possibilities of these structures. A timely and necessary exhibition.

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JR: Chronicles Brooklyn Museum, New York | Until 3 May

brooklynmuseum.org For the third iteration of a series inspired by Diego Rivera, JR has created a huge mural, entitled The Chronicles of New York City, featuring more than 1,000 people photographed and interviewed last year. This largest solo exhibition to date also includes some of the French artist’s most celebrated projects over the past 15 years, which sits at the intersection of photography, social engagement and street art. These include Face 2 Face (2007), portrait diptychs of Israelis and Palestinians pasted on either side of the separation wall.

Unseen: 35 Years of Collecting Photographs Getty Museum, Los Angeles | 17 December - 8 March

getty.edu The Getty has gone on a deep dive through its collection of more than 148,000 prints to present 200 works shown here for the first time. Spanning the development of the medium’s history, they include cyanotypes of Anna Atkins, Polaroids by Mary Ellen Mark and a glass-mounted architectural photographic silkscreen by Veronika Kellndorfer. There are newly-acquired works by Laura Aguilar and Osamu Shiihara, and some gems by Horst P. Horst. This show illuminates the breadth of the Getty’s holdings and reputation.

Preview: Orlando, Inspired by Virginia Woolf Literaturhaus München | Until 12 January

literaturhaus-muenchen.de Some 27 years after starring in Sally Potter’s period drama Orlando, Tilda Swinton (b. 1960) invites writers, artists, filmmakers and photographers to contribute work to a touring exhibition inspired by Virginia Woolf’s eponymous novel. Swinton argues that the story extends beyond gender to address the “flexibility of the fully awake and sensate spirit.” Specially commissioned prints by Mickalene Thomas, Paul Mpagi Sepuya and Carmen Winant are featured alongside texts by Maggie Nelson, Lynne Tillman and Marina Warner.

Direct Message: Art, Language and Power Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago | Until 26 January

mcachicago.org Jenny Holzer (b. 1950) subverts language. She deconstructs words until they are stripped of their meaning – reversing power dynamics in the process. Her installation For Chicago (2007) was dotted with her signature LED lights. It returns to MCA Chicago for the first time in 10 years this winter. Direct Message also presents works by Barbara Kruger (b. 1945), who harnesses the language of advertising to deliver a feminist critique, along with other text-based works by Richard Serra, Jamal Cyrus, Enrique Chagoya, Hans Haacke and Lorna Simpson.

Peter Hujar: Speed of Life Jeu de Paume, Paris | Until 19 January

jeudepaume.org Between the 1960s and 1980s, many photography aficionados fell in love with Peter Hujar (1934-1987). This show, featuring more than 150 images, reveals the earthiness in Hujar’s work, delving into worlds of the avant-garde, dance, music, art and drag. He chronicled New York’s LGBTQ undercurrents – along with its underground scene of artists and writers like John Cage, Susan Sontag and Robert Wilson – with a gentle sense of humanity. This show contains, in the artist’s words, “uncomplicated, direct photographs of complicated subjects.”

1. Green Cotisso, Mantas, Foam, Green Fortuny, Mask, Wicker Vase, Blue Plastic in Paracas, from the series Caminantes, 2019. © Lorenzo Vitturi. 2. Petrina Hicks, Peaches and velvet, 2018. From the Still Life Studio series, 2018. Pigment inkjet print, 120cm x 120cm. National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne. Purchased, Victorian Foundation for Living Australian Artists, 2018. 3. Honey-Suckle Company, Mit Musik geht alles besser, 2005. Courtesy Honey-Suckle Company. 4. © Abi Green, Mysteries of the Horizon. Courtesy of the artist and Ffotogallery. 5. © Ami Vitale, courtesy of the artist and Annenberg Space for Photography. 6. JR (French, born 1983). The Chronicles of New York City, 2018-19 (detail). © JR-ART.NET. 7. See No Evil, 1992. Carrie Mae Weems (American, born 1953). Dye diffusion print.61cm × 50.5cm. The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles. Gift of Daniel Greenberg and Susan Steinhauser. © Carrie Mae Weems. 8. Collier Schorr, Untitled (Casil), 2015-18. © Courtesy the artist and 303 Gallery, New York. 9. Jenny Holzer, For Chicago, 2007. Collection Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, commissioned through the generosity of the Edlis/Neeson Art Acquisition Fund. © 2018 Jenny Holzer, member Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Image: Nathan Keay, © MCA Chicago. 10. Peter Hujar, Susan Sontag, 1975. Printed on silver gelatin, The Morgan Library & Museum, bought in 2013 thanks to Charina Endowment Fund. © Peter Hujar Archive, LLC, courtesy Pace/MacGill Gallery, New York and Fraenkel Gallery, San Francisco.

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More to the Picture Dawoud Bey PORTRAITS REVEAL MANY TRUTHS ABOUT THE HUMAN CONDITION – HOW WE PRESENT OURSELVES TO THE WORLD. BEY EXPLORES THE DIALOGUE BETWEEN SITTER AND SUBJECT.

Dawoud Bey (b. 1953) is an International Center of Photography Infinity Award winner. He has received grants from The National Endowment for the Arts, the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship and the MacArthur Fellowship (aka a “genius grant”) and has exhibited at the George Eastman House, the Walker Art Center, the Detroit Institute of Arts, the Birmingham Museum of Art, the Addison Gallery of American Art, the Indianapolis Museum of Art and many more. You wouldn’t know any of this from his latest publication, On Photographing People and Communities, recently published by Aperture Foundation. Part of The Photography Workshop Series, the book is an extremely approachable and modest guide to shooting portraits, in which Bey adopts a friendly, informal tone. His notes are penned with honesty and vulnerability – much like many of his sitters from over the years. Writing about one of the most famous shots, which depicts a young man in shades outside a cinema lobby, Bey remarks: “He is stylin’ big time. He’s cool with his grape drink, his aviator sunglasses, his tracksuit and white sneakers.” Though approachable, Bey is also extremely thoughtful in his process and self-reflection – raising and discussing issues of representation and the “question of outsiderness” from the outset. He insists on the photographer’s responsibility to be informed – both about the people they’re working with, and also the history of image-making as a whole. The Photography Workshop Series is one of Aperture’s ongoing projects which has so far included books by Mary Ellen Mark on the portrait and the moment, Larry Fink on composition

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and improvisation, and Alex Webb & Rebecca Norris Webb on street photography “and the poetic image.” Bey’s compelling contribution focuses on how portraits might represent both individuals and the communities they come from as part of a kind of dual exploration and cultural commentary. “Dawoud was one of the first people I approached for the series; we’ve been talking about this book since 2013,” says Senior Editor Denise Wolff. “It’s just taken time to find room with his career in full swing. At some point about a year ago, we decided that it was unlikely things were going to get less busy for him, so we just went for it. The series generally works with photographers who have taught in some way, and Dawoud has been a beloved Professor of Art at Columbia College Chicago for 22 years. We’re bringing his teaching to a wider, global audience.” Born in Queens, New York, Bey got into photography when he was 15, after inheriting his godfather’s camera. It was a small gesture – but one which wasn’t taken lightly by any means. He started taking a class and reading a variety of books and magazines, educating himself about “what one does with all the numbers on the lens and the side of the camera.” He states wryly, “It turns out that as you change the shutter speed from 1/30th to 1/250th, the shutter opens and closes either quicker or slower. That’s how I started.” Part of this self-education included visiting a limited number of galleries in New York that showed photography at the time, found via the listings in The New York Times. Going to these exhibitions was “pretty intimidating,” he admits, especially as he often had to go to them alone. “There was no one in

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Dawoud Bey, Four Childrenn at Lenox Avenue, Harlem, 1977; from Dawoud Bey on Photographing People and Communities, (Aperture, 2019). © Dawoud Bey.

“Like many great portrait photographers, Bey says Richard Avedon was a key influence. This was, in no small part, because of his timeless inspirational quotations and advice: ‘the surface is all you’ve got.’”

Previous Page: Dawoud Bey, A Girl with a Knife Nosepin, Brooklyn, 1990; from Dawoud Bey on Photographing People and Communities (Aperture, 2019). © Dawoud Bey. Left: Dawoud Bey, A Couple in Prospect Park, Brooklyn,1990; from Dawoud Bey on Photographing People and Communities (Aperture, 2019). © Dawoud Bey.

my neighbourhood I could ask: ‘Hey Tyrone, want to go to he’s from, something which “weighed on his mind” when he 57th Street and check out Richard Avedon?’” he writes. “So, started documenting the place. Bruce Davidson (b. 1933) and Aaron Siskind (1903-1991) were both individuals on this was a solitary process for me.” However, this process worked. Like many great portrait the periphery – who worked in Harlem. In fact, given that photographers, Bey says Avedon (1923-2004) was a they were white and not from the community, they were key influence. This was, in no small part, because of his “double outsiders,” he says. But he adds: “Whilst I may timeless inspirational quotations and advice: “the surface have been African American, I was still an outsider. I was is all you’ve got.” Through this small but necessary piece a photographer from Queens attempting to represent their of direction, Bey realised that the way a person looks, or community.” His solution was not to abandon the project presents themself to the wider world, contains a bank of “rich but to try to think through these differences, these “inherent information.” Visiting an exhibition of Irving Penn’s (1917- challenges,” and directly engage with them. “I try to address questions like: ‘is it possible to transcend 2009) Small Trades, Bey realised that this was also true when images are taken in the studio, away from their natural the boundaries of difference and make a meaningful surroundings. Gathering more inspiration from image- representation of a subject?’” he writes. “Does one have makers such as Roy DeCarava (1919-2009) and James Van to be 25 years old and black to speak credibly to the Der Zee (b. 1983), he started to see a way forward – taking experience of someone who is 25 and black? Does one have portraits in Harlem, the place where both DeCarava and Van to be gay and white in order to speak legitimately about Der Zee had worked, and also the home of important “black that experience? Is it possible to make it work with some socio-cultural production” – harking back to the Harlem common denominator that transcends lines of difference?” Aperture’s Editor Denise Wolff expands: “Dawoud has spent Renaissance, Marcus Garvey and James Baldwin. “I wanted to make images that contributed to the long his entire career and practice thinking about transcending conversation about Harlem in visual culture,” Bey writes. “If difference. Therefore, he can speak deeply, thoughtfully you’re serious about learning your art form, it’s important to and authoritatively on the subject.” Refreshingly, Bey learn about the history of the subject you want to speak to. doesn’t just talk in general or philosophical terms about Because there’s a long table full of people who have done photography – he also elaborates on the nuts and bolts of significant things, and then you come along and there’s an putting projects together, thinking about the technical and empty seat. But you gotta have something to say. You don’t physical qualities of a shoot. For instance, there’s a famous want to repeat what has been said and you also don’t want piece which shows a young couple embracing beside a tree. to say something completely out of sync. You have to share Though seemingly spontaneous, there was a strong sense of craft and building that went into the composition. Bey a language even if you don’t share an intention.” Bey has family connections with Harlem but it’s not where writes that “I was already set up and waiting for someone to

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Dawoud Bey, A Couple at a Main Street Bus Stop, Rochester, New York, 1989; from Dawoud Bey on Photographing People and Communities (Aperture, 2019). © Dawoud Bey.

come by” – having spotted a nice framing backdrop. From there, he gave the subjects space to be themselves on the grounds that “if the pose comes from the subject, it will ring truer than anything I could direct.” He then carefully picked out the best way to construct the photograph, making sure it ended below the woman’s skirt but above the couples’ heads. He also waited, laboriously, for three cyclists to go past, just in order to fill up some of the empty space. “I’m looking at the couple, but I’m also waiting for the bicycles to come into the frame,” he writes. “It’s funny because I can’t tell them, ‘Hey, just hold it because I’m waiting for something to fill in that space.’ I’m just hoping the bikes go by soon. It’s all about being responsive to the shape of the things in front of you. You don’t want to disrupt the form of the content. You have to be able to see deeply.” Seeing intently also means picking up on the smaller and more nuanced details that might evade most people – the knife stud in a young girl’s nose, for example. As Bey cheerfully admits, sometimes capturing those elements is about choosing the right camera too, as when he swapped the 35mm – that he used for the Harlem work – to 4x5 large format. “At that point, I didn’t know that certain types of cameras are used to make different types of pictures,” he writes. “I was working in a slow, deliberate way with a handheld that was better suited to quick, unobtrusive shots.” Not only does the larger lens pick out all the details clearly, it also changes the relationship between the subject and the artist, making the images more collaborative. Large format equipment has to be set up on a tripod, meaning the photographer has to tell their subject where to stand; but, as they have more time to compose themselves, those subjects

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also “have more ownership of the space.” For Bey, that gave a way to address the hierarchy between photographer and the subject, addressing some of its inherent tensions. However, image-making isn’t just about the individual shots, it’s also about the connection between the photographs, and the way they build “a more extended statement” about what it means to sit alongside one another. They construct a visual narrative that weaves and bends. In fact, in the Strangers/Community project he paired up two individuals who didn’t know each other. These sitters “form a new community momentarily in front of the camera,” he says, adding that one person often ended up mimicking the other’s pose, offering “a way of silently bonding with another human being.” It’s a warm note – an insistence on shared commonalities that perhaps runs through all of Bey’s work. It also runs through his practical advice to readers, to look beyond and collaborate. He writes: “So much of my career has been made possible through relationships spanning many years, ones which I applauded the work of others as they applauded mine. It can be this way for you as well. Take the opportunity to encourage one another. Embrace it. There is room for more than one person at the table.” In our fractured political times, this sense of community is absolutely worth holding onto and valuing for all it’s worth. It is something to cherish in our rapidly expanding visual culture. As Bey writes: “Just make work that you believe matters and that has the capacity to transform the viewer. Having seen your work, audiences have the potential to go back out into the world with new information, and new perceptions – a transformed world view. This may sound like an overly ambitious agenda, but it is the only agenda.”

Right: Dawoud Bey, A Young Woman Between Carrolburg Place and Half Street, Washington, DC, 1989; from Dawoud Bey on Photographing People and Communities (Aperture, 2019). © Dawoud Bey.

Words Diane Smyth

aperture.org

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Subtle Framing Ian Howorth

“Photography is about exploration – nothing has taught me more about the world and myself, spending hours walking alone, dissecting the reasoning behind it.” Ian Howorth is Brighton-based, covering a wide range of subject matters and styles, from cinematic to street documentation. The images, captured through analogue film, revel in the authenticity of opportunity, spontaneity and chance, flowing past characters and locations. Presenting the works as series is to understand the artist’s process for selection and composition; he searches for landscapes that translate the emotion of cinema, transitioning from one scene to the next, revelling in the control of exposure and timing. The featured works slip between indoor and outdoor settings through a subtle persuasion of colour – gradient sunsets, neon signs, brake lights and table lamps cast a diffused glow across the film. Howorth’s photo-book, Arcadia, is available from Setanta Books. ihoworth.com | setantabooks.com/book_author/ian-howorth.

Ian Howorth, Lady is a lamp, 2018. Courtesy of the artist.

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Ian Howorth, Untitled, 2019. Courtesy of the artist.

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Ian Howorth, Shake, 2018. Courtesy of the artist.

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Ian Howorth, Charger, 2018. Courtesy of the artist.

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Ian Howorth, Parallels, 2018. Courtesy of the artist.

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Ian Howorth, Phoebe, 2018. Courtesy of the artist.

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Ian Howorth, Besame, 2017. Courtesy of the artist.

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Ian Howorth, Blooms, 2018. Courtesy of the artist.

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Ian Howorth, Untitled, 2019. Courtesy of the artist.

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Fluidity and Invention Concrete Houses A NEW PUBLICATION FOREGROUNDS AN AGE OF INNOVATION AND EXPERIMENTATION, PUSHING THE BOUNDARIES OF ARCHITECTURE THROUGH POETIC AND GEOMETRIC FORMS.

Villa Além (2014) stands in a cork forest in Portugal’s Alente- sharp angles and sinuous curves of any given mould, before jo region. It’s a striking and compelling house – nestled in a setting into its permanent state. Concrete’s surface is created rugged, rural setting – not least because of its unique and in any number of ways – from the board-marked textures of unexpected appearance, but also its thick, angular concrete. Modernism to the bush-hammered language of Brutalism, It boasts flaps that splay skyward like an opened cardboard as well as the trend for tinted and polished finishes today. box. It was self-designed as a home for the Swiss architect It’s a material that has consistently sparked curiosity in deValerio Olgiati (b. 1958). Minimal and geometric, it is one of signers, pushing the boundaries of form work and inventing the most staggeringly beautiful examples included in Con- new possibilities for fluid constructions. Rollo explains: “You can achieve a multitude of shapes crete Houses, a new publication by Melbourne-based writer Joe Rollo. The 312-page tome is released by Thames & that you would not otherwise achieve easily.” In this way, he Hudson Australia, and is an ode to concrete – to which Rollo views the featured buildings as a source of idea generation has dedicated his entire career. He has been the Editor of for both architects and clients about what happens when C+A Magazine for the last 15 years – a biannual publication you really push the limits. Advances in technology have expromoting the breadth of possibilities offered by the mate- panded this further. “Computers and CAD drawings enabled rial. Though this work has stretched into the better part of designers like Zaha Hadid to manifest extremely complex two decades, his passion is unwavering: “Concrete offers an shapes,” he says, referring to the characteristically swooping unlimited exploration of structure and shape. It has convic- shapes deployed by the late Iraqi architect and innovator. Rollo presents a snapshot of what concrete can be – tion, strength and directness, but plasticity, too, which makes beyond the material’s history. He offers a collection of 19 the possibilities for form-making almost endless.” In its earliest usage, concrete can be traced back to the houses constructed between 2007 and 2018. They have all pyramids of Egypt, but the Romans were the first to take it been plucked from the pages of C+A, a kind of “best list” of to full effect – moulding impressive decorative structures projects that have landed on his desk over the last decade. like the dome of the Pantheon. Concrete’s use has ebbed They take us on a journey from Australia to Japan, Sweden and flowed since, being overlooked for a period before to the USA, and through world-class practitioners including widespread use by Modernist architects such as Frank Lloyd Sou Fujimoto, Marcio Kogan and Tom Kundig. With Villa Além, Rollo explains how the traditional walled Wright, Oscar Niemeyer and Walter Gropius – who experigarden has been reinterpreted and given a “monumental mented when building the Bauhaus school in Dessau. Poetic, hard-wearing, heavy, malleable, concrete’s mix of character.” A red tinge has been added to the mix – a conwater, aggregate and cement is fluid enough to explore cession to the house’s context, helping the walls harmonise

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Camberwell House, Melbourne, Australia, 2015. Architect: ANDRÉS CASILLAS DE ALBA AND EVOLVA ARCHITECTS. Photograph: John Gollings and Jeremy Weihrauch.

“Opinion of the Brutalist style has swung from positive to negative and back again, especially as so few examples of the movement remain intact. But the Bauhaus centenary has done wonders to bolster positivity toward concrete.”

Previous Page: Dovecote Braga, Portugal, 2016. Architect: AZO SEQUEIRA ARQUITECTOS ASSOCIADOS. Photograph: Nelson Garrido. Left: Lune de Sang Pavilion, Northern New South Wales, Australia, 2018. Architect: CHROFI. Photograph: Brett Boardman.

with russet soil. The building is connected with the colour and texture of the earth, as if planted there. Walls reaching up to 5.5 metres fold over as flaps that provide necessary shading. The architect, Valerio Olgiati, described these elements as “petals.” They’re fundamental to the play between light and shadow that keeps a succession of austere and practical rooms cool. “Thermally, concrete is an incredibly well-suited material for heat retention and for cooling – in countries like Australia, Spain, Brazil and Portugal.” Another structure that is deeply integrated into forestry is Hiroi Ariyama and Megumi Matsubara’s It is a Garden (2016), in Japan’s Nagano Prefecture. The building casts assumptions aside that concrete is conducive with hermetic spaces. Conceived as a guest house, It is a Garden includes a series of five courtyards to let the woodland break through and open up the building into the sky. Huge panes of glass, clean lines act as a framework, which ensure the canopy is always visible – always to be recognised. “From just about anywhere you get glimpses of the woodland,” says Rollo, “whether you’re looking up or inwards.” Whilst concrete is used as a framing device in Villa Além and It is a Garden, the smooth walls of Tom Kundig’s The Pierre (2011) are masterfully spliced with a craggy rock on Lopez Island, Washington, facing the sea. Set on the shoreline, the chunky residence seems purposefully wedged in stone, as if the weather might otherwise carry it away. The American architect is famed for joyful contraptions – pulleys, levers and rollers – but the playfulness in this project comes from the pairing of natural and manmade elements. A tiny cave-like bathroom is carved into the rock and the waste is used as aggregate for the terrazzo flooring in the

living space, where an outcrop of stone is met by smooth, vertical concrete wall to form a hearth. It’s a clever intervention impossible to imagine with any other material. If The Pierre seeks to make a statement, Dovecote (2016) by Azo Sequeira Arquitectos Associados is about subtly preserving a historic way of life. The house, situated in Braga, Portugal, is in fact a playroom that replaces a derelict dovecote in the garden. Poured within a wooden mould, the walls are veined with the faint impression of the grain. A small triangular opening, cut into the apex, is a nod to the doves that once flew through such an opening to roost. These understated details show how delicately concrete can be employed, poured and, eventually, decorated. “It became an exercise in replacing the previous form.” says Rollo. The showstopper is the small gap at the base of the house, which creates an illusion of levitation – enabling light to seep through. “From some angles it looks like it’s floating,” says Rollo. Azo Sequeira adds: “We wanted the room to be inspired by magic, fantasy and also by childhood dreams. We decided to transform the old blueprints into a minimal tree house that represented memories and imagination of purity of light and peace.” An architecture publication penned by an Australian writer would not be complete without the inclusion of Peter Stutchbury. Invisible House (2012) is sheltered by the Blue Mountains under a vast cantilevering roof. It acts as an awning to shelter a terrace bound by walls compiled from cuts of mesmerising pink sandstone and supports a suite of rusted steel boxes that act as periscopes. Whilst considered a relatively low-cost material in the UK and the USA, the intensive labour involved in producing a concrete building

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It is a Garden, Nagano, Japan, 2016. Architect: ASSISTANT. Photograph: Daici Ano.

makes it a luxurious choice. “As much as I’d love to have a house like this, I couldn’t afford one,” Rollo states wryly. In an inner-city context, set amidst Edwardian-era dwellings in Melbourne, Andrés Casillas De Alba and Evolva Architects’ Camberwell House (2015) draws inspiration from Pritzker Prize-winning architects Luis Barragán – known for brightly coloured, geometric forms – and Tadao Ando – acclaimed for using raw grey concrete. The pock-marked rectilinear walls and a pop of lurid pink paintwork pays homage to them both. “Camberwell House was designed by an architect who had worked with Barragán. However, it actually fits in with the streetscape – the house has that warmth that you wouldn’t normally expect of a modern building.” For the home of an art collector in Sydney, Indigo Slam (2016), Smart Design Studio created an experimental design that brings together expressed barrel vaults, tilted skylights and smooth curves in a single sweep – rightly described by Rollo as taking on the appearance of a pop-up book. “Concrete has gone from a purely utilitarian material for industrial applications to being used in much more creative ways,” he says. At first glance the heavy use of the material does not appear conducive to the environment, but the angles and openings help to channel in natural light and aid crossventilation. Geothermal heating and cooling are also present, as well as solar panels and rainwater harvesting. Inside, the spaces are bright and tactile, the curves softened by white paint and a palette of stone, brick and wood. “Internally it need not be a cold material to live with,” says Rollo. Whilst the climate crisis has sharply highlighted concrete’s negative traits – if it were a country it would be the world’s third largest carbon emitter after China and the USA –

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environmental damage has also brought an impetus for Right: is a Garden, Nagano, Japan, 2016. innovation across all fields of study and construction. The ItArchitect: ASSISTANT. Photograph: Daici Ano. plasticity of fibreglass is a starting point. Fibre concrete negates the need for steel reinforcing rods and has been used by the likes of Zaha Hadid Architects in projects such as the Heydar Aliyev Centre in Baku (not included in the text). “Technology and the new developments of CAD designs mean that we can create shapes that would have been so laborious and time-consuming that the costs would have been prohibitive,” says Rollo. The continually developing world of 3D printing has also brought an economic use of resources with its ability to create structures without form work, whilst researchers at ETH Zurich have also done away with ridged moulds to come up with a digital fabrication technique using woven yarn known as KnitCrete, which ensures that building in concrete will become more sustainable in years to come. Across Europe in particular, concrete has long been associated with an intensive period of postwar construction. Many of these public buildings and housing estates now face demolition or remodelling, such as the Birmingham Central Library which was ripped down in 2013. Opinion of the Brutalist style has swung from positive to negative and back again, especially as so few examples of the movement Words remain intact. The Bauhaus centenary has changed many Jessica Mairs perspectives once again, asking questions about beauty and function through open interiors, minimal aesthetics and a lack of ornament in an age of over-distraction. Rollo’s col- Concrete Houses lection, with its sweeping curves, block-minimal lines, monu- is published by mental towers and mesmerising spaces, does the same. It Thames & Hudson. offers architecture as a poetry of geometry and mathematics – blueprints pushed to the limits of gravity and perception. thamesandhudson.com.au

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Playful Silhouettes So AsA

Based on the small, Mediterranean island of Corsica, So AsAâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s main inspiration comes from busy street activity. The artist began to build up a portfolio of silhouettes, having originally shot in black and white. When the sun hits buildings, passers-by are thrown into anonymity. Colours burst against the illuminated walls in bright oranges, yellows and reds. Meanwhile, shadows outline strangers as they walk amongst the buildings. They stand, talk, play and run through alleyways, outside of market stalls and across roads, never to be truly known or identified. Using only an iPhone, So AsA examines the everyday through a new lens, cradling the shadows of city-goers, parents, children and lone wanderers. Their bodies are like cut-outs from a collage. These pictures celebrate the energy from a bustling town whilst maintaining a sense of distance, providing an impression of a given moment. instagram.com/so.asa.