serial consign

[felix schramm / revealing the pinnacles / 2004]

The most recent edition of Artkrush is dedicated to exploring the intersection of art and the design of space. The issue contains a feature by Bryony Roberts on the cross-pollination between artistic practice and architecture, as well as an illuminating (if concise) interview with video and installation artist Dan Graham.

The Bryony Roberts feature discusses the work of Rachel Whiteread, Liam Gillick and a number of other relevant artists. The piece introduced me to the work of German installation artist Felix Schramm. I am completely enthralled by the rawness of his work. Schramm's sculpted archi-debris reminds me of the inexact precision of Gordon Matta-Clark and the energy of some of Coop Himmelb(l)au's installation work.

[dan graham / two-way mirror cylinder inside cube and a video salon: rooftop urban park project for dia center for the arts / 1981 & 1991]

Within the constraints of a short interview with Sara Raza, Dan Graham communicates a heightened awareness of the dialog between art and architecture. His response to a question about the tension between public and private space within his work is worth repeating:

In the early '70s, I was doing work that was later published in a book called Video-Architecture-Television. It was all about surveillance and how video defeated renaissance perspective with its time delay and linking of distant places. For example, you can be in your living room, and you can see images from the moon on the television. I think that experience is also present in corporate architecture, especially in the phenomenon of two-way mirror glass. Two-way mirror glass functions by making one side into a mirror, and on the other side, where there's no light, you can transparently see out without being seen. This is also where the idea of surveillance came in — I wanted to make work that was both transparent and reflective...

This quote is music to my ears, I love that Graham can bounce from perspective to telepresence to two-way glass. Take a look at the rest of the interview if for no reason other than to read him rip into Phillip Johnson and Frank Gehry.