Semblences
Exhibition Design 2015
Acts of translation deal with the shift from one mode of description to another, creating gaps in perception that challenge what can be construed, or misconstrued, to be either real or fictive. Differentiating itself from literal translation [metaphrase] or parallel translation [paraphrase], the project Semblances - instead produces translations that attempt to render things with varying degrees of latitude and to bring that rendition together with its source. The project takes its name from the appearance or outward seeming of something which is not actually there or where the reality of something is different from its appearance. The legible correlation between things, inherent to the practice of architecture, between the drawing and the model, or the drawing and building, involves varying degrees of specificity. The exclusion of certain kinds of information and the inclusion of other kinds of information within a given format is driven by the conventions of architectural notation and what is considered to be germane or appropriate to a particular context. Paradoxically, a degree of generalization is often required in the interest of enhancing legibility. Semblances challenges these conventions and considers how the presence of descriptive improprieties yields formal improprieties and produces architectural objects that exist in multiple guises. The installation questions the status of the image in relation to an object. It reflects on the idea that the capacity to describe an object through images may be such that the description of the object begins, in some instances, to coincide with the object itself. The process of documentation of sites, objects, and spaces becomes misconstrued to engender multiple authenticities. Translations between drawings and objects produce a fusion between architectural form and forms that appear to be constructed natures.
Exhibition Design – servo los angeles / stockholm >> Design Partners - Marcelyn Gow, William Mohline, Ulrika Karlsson >> Semblances is supported by the City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs – Individual Artist Fellowship >> Photography - Joshua White (images 1-19)
