This summer I am going to China with The Taubman College of Architecture. I will be living and working at B.A.S.E., an architecture studio in Caochangdi, the artists district of Beijing. I have never been the the Eastern hemisphere, do not speak Mandarin, and have absolutely no conception of what I will be doing there aside from the fact that I know that I am going. So the first thing I did to prepare was go to the exhibit “Research Through Making.”
The architecture program is in its third year. It acts as a seed funding resource for faculty projects which combine both research and creativity in unusual ways. The idea that design and research are opposites is intended to be debunked by this fabulous exposition of “applied art.” The scope of the gallery is expansive such that each installation stands on a spacious scale. It gives you plenty to explore.
The installation is being held in the Liberty Research Annex (305 W. Liberty St). The exhibit has been open since the premier celebration on January 20, 2012 where the pioneers of each work celebrated the showing of their accomplishment. The closing will be on April 7th, 2012. The gallery s open on Fridays and Saturdays from 2pm-7pm.
The five installations on display include:
- Glass Cast by Cate Newell and Wes McGee
- Ruralopolitan Maneuvers/HOUSE 50 by Mary-Ann Ray and Robert Mangurian
- Dirty Work by Neal Robinson
- Morphfaux…recovering plaster as architectural substrate by Steven Mankouche, Josh Bard, and Matthew Schulte
- Resonant Chamberr by Geoff Thün, Kathy Velikoy and Wes McGee
(The photos below are ordered accordingly)
Before she left for a semester in Chile, my friend Deena Etter and I went to the gallery to explore the space. Deena was a part of the program last May and June when her project piloted in the small village of The Pearl River Valley region. She took verbal and photographic inventory of all the personal possessions of one family’s home, then created a book to encapsulate her findings. Below is is a picture of her seeing her work on display for the first time. Isn’t she cute. I will have the great fortune of continuing her work in China under professors Mary-Ann Ray and Robert Mangurian. Should be a great summer! And what a beautiful appetizer of an exhibit to get me excited for it.
