I finally got round to visiting the Summer Exhibition 2011 at the Royal Academy on Piccadilly. Unsurprisingly one of my favourite rooms was the Architecture Room, which this year was curated by Piers Gough, and Alan Stanton, who stated that the exhibition as a whole; ‘Encourages us to think about relationships between art and architecture – sculptural, conceptual and photographic.’ Piers Gough described his thoughts regarding the Architecture room itself, by explaining that architects are ‘so pleased to be in a major art show. Architecture is an art, and we owe it to the public to produce exhilarating work.’
Images: Andrew Putler
The room was circulated around four podiums featuring physical models by both students and professionals, alongside drawings, collages and photographs hanging on the duck-egg blue wall. One of my favourite pieces of work was a model titled ‘Sub-Urbanism’ by Archmongers, who consist of Bartlett graduates Margaret Bursa and Johan Hybschmann. The project ‘Sub Urbanism’ questions the ever-enduring popularity of the 20th century suburb and how it fits within the contemporary socio-ecological model of housing shortage and climate change. Another project which caught my eye was Object III – Warsaw Institute of Experimental Film: Editing Facility and Object IX – Warsaw Institute of Experimental Film: Festival Hotel by In Stasus. A previous post of mine on their project can be seen here.
Images: Archmongers
Images: In Stasus
