SCI-Arc Gallery

July 29-September 11, 2011
Jason Payne, Hirsuta
Rawhide
Discussion + opening reception: Friday, July 29, 7pm

Installation Abstract
Rawhide explores Hirsuta’s critically acclaimed project Raspberry Fields, a residential project sited in northern Utah, focusing on its signature use of curled shingles as exterior cladding.

The architectural “skin” is, by now, a rather well-worn path through the conceptualization of built exterior surfaces. And as is typical of well-worn paths, this one has become hard and dry, no longer particularly interesting underfoot. Building surface as “hide,” however, seems a fresh new way to push the dialogue of cladding toward and expanded array of associations and models less well-known to the discipline. Possible interpretations abound: where the skin is bald and shaven, the hide retains its think fur. If the skin’s geometry is immediately and completely apparent, that of the hide only flirts with visibility, and only then after the luster and texture of its hairiness has been combed through. Skins are thin, so thin as to be insufficient onto themselves, requiring the “bones” underneath to carry some of the load. Never mind that with hides; whether they require underlying structure or not is of little consequence to their luscious external reading. A good hide feels entirely self-sufficient, such that its prostration on a floor becomes the center of a room’s attention. Nothing more is required.

Library Gallery
June 10-July 16, 2011
Wendy Heldmann
You are so beautiful and I am a fool
Opening reception: Friday, June 10, 7pm
More info to come…