Event #4: Provocations: The Architecture and Design of Heatherwick Studio

Provocation: an action or speech that makes someone annoyed or angry, especially deliberately.

I'm testing out Heatherwick's Spun chairs

Perhaps Heatherwick planned for his art to be unique in such a way, that would elicit intense emotion from the viewer. Maybe that is why his architecture, his art and his designs appear to be strange, to be… alien, in a way. The art and architecture in Provocations was truly unique, ranging from buildings whose structures regularly appear in science fiction to a truly delightful chair that uses the moment of inertia and balance to keep from falling over.

The Garden Bridge, stretching over the River Thames, is already in progress

Heatherwick’s architecture, however, is not for specifically art buildings. Structurally, his designs work to benefit the purpose of the building. For example, one of Heatherwick’s designs for a bridge creates a structure that traverses the Thames River in London, while supporting gardens simultaneously. This is a clear representation of combining science and art into a single form that serves multiple purposes. Architecture is an artform that naturally utilizes mathematics and physics to stabilize structures and minimize damage and death. Heatherwick takes this one step further, adding an additional purpose in the form of a garden.

A dissected Spun chair, displaying its natural balance

Heatherwick’s Spun chairs, composed of polyethylene, maintain a certain balance that is only possible due to its perfect symmetry and rotational form, a topic we covered in Lecture 2. The focus on a perfect symmetry is reminiscent of the symmetry that exists in nature’s Golden Ratio.

Me with the Provocations sign at Hammer Museum

Going to Heatherwick’s exhibit made me realize how much I’ve learned from taking DESMA 9 this quarter. Every exhibit I saw, in addition to those I’ve described in this posting, reminded me of something I learned in lecture, or in reading fellow student’s blog. 

Website:

http://hammer.ucla.edu/exhibitions/2015/provocations-the-architecture-and-design-of-heatherwick-studio/

Event #3: The People’s United Nations (pUN) – Pedro Reyes

I’m going to be honest here. Of all the events I’ve attended this quarter, Pedro Reyes’ exhibit, The People’s United Nations, is by far the exhibit I’ve enjoyed the most. Reyes uses a combination of science and art to create a social commentary towards the world today.

Me, with both the Disarm Clock and the Force Field Analysis

Disarm Clock, one of Reyes recent pieces, is a repurposing of various guns collected by the Mexican government into an art piece that designates time and serves as an instrument. It can regularly alarm according to time and is a beautiful rendition of peace. The purpose of The People’s United Nations is to emphasize and facilitate peace, open arms and an end to violence, and this piece is clearly that.

Another one of Reyes’ artworks, titled Force Field Analysis, depicts several figures in a perpetual tug of war. This piece, utilizing a simple, yet scientific approach via Newton’s Second Law of Physics, emphasizes to the audience that, in an argument, if no one is willing to compromise, goals cannot be met.

One of Reyes' more recent works, urging
for the universality of genetic science

Reyes' Drone Dove

The reason why I enjoyed Reyes’ exhibit was because this exhibit clearly displays the topic of our class, combining the two different cultures of science and art to generate a third culture that can spread the message to both the scientific community and to artists alike. In Reyes’ art, there is a certain depth of understanding to his use of science that clearly defines him as an artist that not only utilizes science, but is interested in it and is willing to learn what he can about it to apply to his art. 

Website:

http://hammer.ucla.edu/exhibitions/2015/hammer-projects-pedro-reyes/