Constructed out of art packing materials, the design for “Off the Wall” follows the concept of the exhibition where traditional materials—the museum’s permanent collection or its music archives—are recycled and reinterpreted to create new works of art. Similar to the way art reinterprets the content of the museum, its art collection, the design reinterprets the context of the museum, its art handling and shipping. The foam and cardboard from the back rooms of the museum are brought to the front of the house and into the space of the gallery, giving new meaning to the internal mechanisms of the museum. In a literal translation of the exhibition title, the design provides not only “Off the Wall” platforms for the display of the art but also for the artists at work. Three different materials were used in the three galleries responding to the type of art in each space:
- The Pixilated Mattress - A landscape of gray foam blocks, for the sound artists and a lounge space
- The Pedestal Mountains - A tactile series of pedestals from white ester foam, which heighten the materiality of the fashion design and multimedia art display
-The Display Canyon - A cut through layers of honeycomb cardboard displaying both the flat-screen media and projected art along with the artists in a continuous intimate exhibit
Exhibition design is possibly one of the more extreme cases of short lived architecture. As such, it provides an opportunity to integrate the life expectancy of the project as a driving force for the design. The before and afterlife of the project become crucial participants in the design process, whereas the use of ephemeral materials (the foam and cardboard) merely shifts the matrix of the routine operations of the museum.
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