My friend Sarita standing in front of our friend Sandeep Mukherjee's latest installation at the MAK Center for Art and Architecture at the Schindler House (Sandeep is one of my favorite artists).
Info on the show:
Symmetry
January 26, 2006 - May 07, 2006
835 North King Road
West Hollywood, CA
323-651-1510
In the world of space and time, symmetry derives its meaning from a center, a repetition of forms on mirroring sides of an axis. The exhibition Symmetry features works by Los Angeles-based contemporary artists that use or relate to this concept. Curated by Nizan Shaked and Kimberli Meyer, Symmetry presents work by nine artists: Edgar Arcenaux, Patrick Hill, Brandon Lattu, Sandeep Mukherjee, Amy Sarkisian, Eddo Stern and Jessica Hutchins, Stephanie Taylor and Sam Watters.
Symmetry describes a formal property; it also has been continuously associated with an ideological position. In ancient Greece, symmetry was seen as key to creating balance, order and beauty. Modernism, posited as the antithesis to the persistence of classicism, deemed symmetry a redundant form that facilitated idle viewing. Attached to neither of these positions, the exhibition artworks underscore and often directly respond to the unique symmetry of the Schindler House. Like the house, the works perform a spin on the idea of balance, the use of symmetry—or its careful undoing—appearing sometimes on the surface, sometimes hidden in the structure, but always at the core of a work’s meaning.
The Schindler House’s symmetry can only be perceived by experiencing its space, reading its floor plan, or from a bird’s eye view, for it is not apparent in a facade. Conceptualized on the horizontal rather than the vertical plane, the pin-wheel floor plan revolves around a central axis, creating a flipped symmetry that enabled two families to share the same home with maximum privacy. Schindler’s use of interlocking spaces and the resulting multi-planar vistas and transparencies further extends the sensation of spaciousness in this utopian experiment in Modern living. The properties of the house, the history of its residents, and the exhibition it will host, all reveal subtle formal symmetries that spin narratives of similarity and difference.
