SFMOMA Explores Unconventional Approach to Exhibiting Architecture with Patterns of Speculation

The First Art Newspaper on the Net    Established in 1996 Friday, March 29, 2024


SFMOMA Explores Unconventional Approach to Exhibiting Architecture with Patterns of Speculation
Danfoss Universe, Nordborg, Denmark, 2007; © J. MAYER H; Photo: J. MAYER H. Architects.



SAN FRANCISCO, CA.- From February 6 through July 7, 2009, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA) features Patterns of Speculation: J. MAYER H., the first solo museum exhibition of work by the German architecture studio J. MAYER H.

Organized by the San Francisco Museum of Art (SFMOMA) and Henry Urbach, SFMOMA's Helen Hilton Raiser Curator of Architecture and Design, the exhibition is unorthodox in that it combines two approaches to showing architecture in a gallery: video documentation of the studio's built work and an environment, designed by J. MAYER H., that presents the architect's spatial language at full scale.

Known for its commitment to a high level of formal and conceptual research, Berlin-based J. MAYER H. is one of the leading architectural studios in Europe, where more than 35 projects have been completed or are now under way. Central to the studio's experimental approach is a deep engagement with a ubiquitous yet often ignored image type: data protection patterns, such as those found lining bank envelopes and shipping labels. These patterns—typically composed of numbers, letters, or logos—serve to conceal other information, forming what Jürgen Mayer H., the principal of J. MAYER H., calls " information mist." Data protection patterns have become a fertile terrain for J. MAYER H. as the studio translates these patterns across media and scales to express its distinctive design language.

For Patterns of Speculation, J. MAYER H. designed an installation environment that combines applied supergraphic elements and seating units that contain video monitors and projectors, immersing viewers in a matrix of enlarged three-dimensional data patterns. Within this environment, animated data patterns are shown on monitors, while images of the studio's built work are projected onto the gallery walls and ceiling. Finally, a sound environment has been developed by translating visual patterns into sonic ones, further surrounding the viewer with a thick cloud of "information mist."

With its work on housing, universities, commercial, civic and office buildings, and large-scale urban projects, J. MAYER H. has been striving to develop a contemporary architectural language that addresses collective experience while avoiding historicism, generic minimalism, or digitally driven formalism. The firm has designed many acclaimed buildings, including the Stadt.haus for Ostfildern (2001), the Mensa Moltke dining hall for Karlsruhe University (2007), and Danfoss Universe Science Park (2007), in Denmark. The Metropol Parasol for Seville, Spain—a transformation of the ancient Plaza de la Encarnación—is expected to reach completion in 2010. In recent years, J. MAYER H. has received considerable international recognition, including a recent Der Spiegel feature and the April 2008 cover story in I.D. Magazine.

The exhibition is accompanied by the newly released book, J. MAYER H., edited by Henry Urbach and Cristina Steingräber. This volume is the first to present the entire oeuvre of J. MAYER H. and to consider how the studio's research and built practice come together. A number of renowned authors—such as Andres Lepik, John Paul Ricco, Ilka and Andreas Ruby, Felicity D. Scott, Henry Urbach, and Philip Ursprung—take a variety of approaches toward positioning the firm's work in contemporary discourse.

Concurrently on view is Austere: Selections from the SFMOMA Collection. This exhibition brings together works from the photography and architecture and design collections that share a sense of reduced form and sober purpose. Thomas Ruff's interior photographs of Mies van der Rohe's Barcelona Pavilion and Bernd and Hilla Becher's photographs of water towers join two projects by Simon Ungers (one recently acquired for SFMOMA's collection) that propose an extraordinarily severe architectural language in finely rendered drawings and models made of rusted cold-rolled steel.










Today's News

February 6, 2009

Rothko / Giotto - Tactility in Painting Opens at Kulturforum Potsdamer Platz, Gemaldegalerie

Sotheby's February 2009 Contemporary Art Evening Sale Achieves $25,785,250

Edgar Degas. Intimity and Pose Opens Today at Hamburger Kunsthalle

Utopia: Qiu Anxiong - What Do You Dream Of? The Best of All Possible Worlds!

SFMOMA Explores Unconventional Approach to Exhibiting Architecture with Patterns of Speculation

The Contemporary Jewish Museum Presents Today "Jews on Vinyl"

The Best is Often the Memories - Photographic Portraits of Romy Schneider Opens

Mapping the Mountains: The Photographs of George Masa Opens at Asheville Art Museum

Evolving Eden: Three Photographic Perspectives at The Sheldon Museum of Art

Prominent National Dealers Bring Art World to Inaugural Dallas Art Fair

Matti Braun Featured at Kunstmuseum Liechtenstein

Everson Presents Renowned Sculptor Nancy Jurs

ICA Boston Presents First Museum Survey of Street Artist Shepard Fairey

Animals in the Drawing Room: Portraits by Mari Kloeppel at Crocker Art Museum

Rubin Museum of Art Presents First Exhibition Devoted to Historical Tibetan Artist

George Eastman House fills Conservatory with flowers Feb. 6-21, Mirroring George Eastman's 1909 Order

The Hand and the Soul - LeWitt, Slutzky, Iliescu Opens at UVa Art Museum

Thomas Bayrle. I've a feeling we're not in Kansas anymore

Sotheby's Spring Sale of Indian & Southeast Asian Art to be Held March 18, 2009

Museum of American Finance Announces Search for New Director




Museums, Exhibits, Artists, Milestones, Digital Art, Architecture, Photography,
Photographers, Special Photos, Special Reports, Featured Stories, Auctions, Art Fairs,
Anecdotes, Art Quiz, Education, Mythology, 3D Images, Last Week, .

 



Founder:
Ignacio Villarreal
(1941 - 2019)
Editor & Publisher: Jose Villarreal
Art Director: Juan José Sepúlveda Ramírez

Royalville Communications, Inc
produces:

ignaciovillarreal.org juncodelavega.com facundocabral-elfinal.org
Founder's Site. Hommage
to a Mexican poet.
Hommage
       

The First Art Newspaper on the Net. The Best Versions Of Ave Maria Song Junco de la Vega Site Ignacio Villarreal Site
Tell a Friend
Dear User, please complete the form below in order to recommend the Artdaily newsletter to someone you know.
Please complete all fields marked *.
Sending Mail
Sending Successful