INSTALLATIONS
Archetypes and Transformations
INSTALLATIONS
Archetypes and Transformations
The installation Archetypes and Transformations debuted at the Spring Exhibition, Charlottenborg Castle, and was the synthesis of a research project by the same name.
The installation is composed as a Tripod, juxtaposing antiquity and modernity. It consists of two tablets and a sculpture directing the gaze, and reflecting the two large geometric signs in a triangulated front sculpture facing the viewers vantage point.
Starting point for the project is a comparative analysis of two selected buildings and their master layouts. One from antiquity as an archetype. Represented by Acropolis in Athens, Greece during the period from 447 B.C. – 200 A.D. The other a contemporary project representing a transformation of the archetype. The School of Architecture O’Porto in Portugal built 1986-1996 and designed by the Portuguese architect Alvaro Siza. This project alludes to aspects of an Acropolis Portuense.
The large geometric signs on the tablets are in scale relation to one another. They represent a composition and context reading of each project as a geometrical abstraction. The signs can be read as such. Concurrently they refer to the double cone diagram as a universal symbol representing a projectional relationship between viewer and the building/complex – the subject and the object – through the gaze, and of life and death over time.
The red sign represents Acropolis. The two centers and the double cone axis are referring to vantage points. A directed point of view over “X” towards the corners of the temples. The axis is referring to landscape symbols, the conical mount, Lycabettus Hill, and valley “bowl” in the further distant mountain range.
The black sign represents The School of Architecture, O’Porto by Alvaro Siza. The project is composed as a triangular plan figure with two centers on an axis, like the ellipse of the baroque period. The opposing centers generate the projection plane of the double cones.
The two tablets are each shaped as a sectional half wedge. They are identical, but at the same time different. They reference the Hermes statue from antiquity. The tablets represent unity, duality and difference in one whole.
In the installation they appear as a marble illusion. In changing light the surfaces shift from mat to shiny. Both have the same “etched” imprints appearing as corrosions in the polished surface. These function as a narrative layer, composed of symbols, pictograms, icons and architectural elements referencing antiquity and modernity, and adhering to no chronological order. They are assembled in story lines as their own “hieroglyph” type vocabulary. The big signs in red and black are applied as the finishing layer. They create the differentiation and depict time.
The third element of the installation, the sculpture, in white lacquer high gloss finish, indicates a place in between. From this point the viewer is offered a vantage point, that: Divides time, Reflects time and Collects time. In another gaze, in a position in front of the object, antiquity and modernity are united in a diachronic perspective.
For more information refer to the research project in Research and Academics.
Exhibition: Spring Exhibition Debut 1996, Charlottenborg Castle, Copenhagen
Location: Copenhagen, Denmark
Field of Study: Architecture, Research and Academics
Awards and Grants: The Danish Cultural Ministry, Production Fund and The Danish Arts Foundation
Residencies: The Danish Institute in Athens, Greece and The Danish Workshops for Arts and Crafts
Photography: Ole Akhøj Photography and Eva Christine Jensen
Exhibition: Spring Exhibition Debut 1996, Charlottenborg Castle, Copenhagen
Location: Copenhagen, Denmark
Field of Study: Architecture, Research and Academics
Awards and Grants: The Danish Cultural Ministry, Production Fund and The Danish Arts Foundation
Residencies: The Danish Institute in Athens, Greece and The Danish Workshops for Arts and Crafts
Photography: Ole Akhøj Photography and Eva Christine Jensen
Exhibition tripod installation, two tablets and a sculpture setting up a point of view
Detail, the sculpture reflects the tablet signs in the vertical triangulated front figure
Exhibition tripod installation with back side of sculpture
Exhibition sculpture side view
Detail, red geometric sign with symbols appearing as a reflective illusion in marble
Detail, black geometric sign with symbols appearing as a reflective illusion in marble
Plan of Acropolis, Athens, Greece
Plan of O’Porto Architecture School by Alvaro Siza
Design of tablet “story” layer composed of symbols, pictograms and architectural elements