Friday, August 19, 2011

a little something

This week I've been continuing some research for a project that I've been working on for the Halsey Institute of Contemporary Art. I've been serving as a research assistant ("Special Projects Associate" to be specific) to the Halsey's director and curator Mark Sloan for a book proposal/traveling exhibition that's in the works. The project involves the work of Mr. Don ZanFagna, a multi-talented man in his 80's currently living in Mt. Pleasant, SC.

  CLICK HERE to learn more about Mr. ZanFagna

As part of my research, I've been reading up on "Organic Architecture." I've read cover to cover Javier Senosiain's Bio-Architecture, as well as heavily skimmed several others on the subject, and I've come across some ideas and quotes that are particularly relevant in my personal studio work (which shares some aesthetic & conceptual qualities with ZanFagna's). I can't seem to get the following quote, by Frank Lloyd Wright, out of my head. It's taking me somewhere I have been headed for some time... 
Every house is a mechanical forgery of the human body... the whole inside is a sort of stomach that attempts to digest objects, objets d'art perhaps, but objects nonetheless. Here is where the feigned affliction installs itself, always hungry for more objects or plethoric because of excess. It seems like the whole life of the common house is a form of indigestion, an unhealthy body that suffers slight illnesses, that demands constant repairs and remedies to survive. It is a marvel that we, its occupants, are not driven crazy in it and with it; perhaps it is a sort of insanity we have put into it.
 I'm thinking a lot about that quote and how Wright's ideas fit into my body of work/area of interest. I'm excited about the possibilities. Oh yea, and I pulled out some materials today. I've been sitting on my hands for the past few weeks, but I think it's time to start playing around - to see some ideas come to life. The above image is the result of today's toilings.

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