Sensate: Bodies and Design

Jacqualyn Lindo

Anna Novakov

Art History

October 16, 2009

Sensate: Bodies and Design

After exiting the elevator to the second floor of the SF MOMA, I proceeded to the entrance of the exhibition, Sensate: Bodies and Design. I read and took some notes from the introduction wall text to get more of an idea about the show. On that same wall, I noticed something odd. The open space next to it looked at first as if they had made a mistake on the painting job. Then it looked like the wall was breathing and I noticed that the words “Sensate: Bodies and Design” were painted to appear like they were emerging through the wall. As if the wall paint was skin and the words were pushing out. I thought it was a well done representation of what I expected to see in the exhibit. I was expecting to see deformed, altered, architectural elements that could be related to characteristics of the human body and vice versa. After all, why not think of a coat of paint as a top layer of skin to a structure? From the introduction wall text I discovered that I was not just going to see an exhibit on architecture compared to the human body and its “ symmetry, purposeful form, a clear hierarchy of parts, and firm smooth skin”(Urbach) Instead I would be seeing works that focus on the imperfections of the human form such as, “mutant bodies, fractured bodies, pregnant bodies, Siamese bodies, bodies in a state of decline.” (Urbach) (Henry Urbach, Helen Hilton raiser curator of architecture and design)

In the first room of the exhibit I got chills standing in front of Aziz + Cucher’s chromatic print Interiors. A quote found on the artists’ website by Frazer Ward gives justice to their haunting works, “Aziz + Cucher’s Interiors are metaphors for the abandon and the terror of the collapse of distinctions between human and non-human, the attraction and the repulsion of the dissolution of limits.” (Ward) Interior #1(1998), #2, and #3 (both 1998 and printed in 2001) all felt like images of halls and corridors I would never want to venture down. The texture used on the walls seemed to mimic the imperfections of skin. One of them felt like a dead end to some fleshy maze.  The walls, with their flesh like texture and glow made me think of the inverted innards of something twisted and mutated. Yet, at the same time they had a warm peaceful glow. It is this glow that draws you in, but it is the dark crevices that push you back.

In the next room were E.V. Day’s Series of five 18” x 24” blueprints, titled Anatomy of Hugh Hefner’s Private Jet (1999), they were intriguing to say the least. The name Hugh Hefner automatically sparks some perverted thoughts and some of the blueprints, to me, looked like an anatomy lesson of the happenings in Hugh Hefner and guests when on his private jet. For example the phallic form in Cross-Section of Hugh Hefner’s Digestive System does not look much like a normal digestive system. I saw it as a hint that, perhaps all Hefner needs to survive are his genitals.  Besides the humor behind the sexual images and titles, I realized that the blueprints of an architectural structure is no different from the images found in an anatomy book on the human body. Day used common architectural labels on a blueprint of an anatomical structure. After looking at the blueprints it didn’t seem like much of a stretch to expect Hefner to design a jet or mansion based on his anatomy, or for that matter base an architectural plan on an organ from the body.

In the same room as Aziz + Cucher’s Interiors, looking at John Dickinson’s Bone Floor Lamp (1978) and Bone Cigarette Table (1977) made me realize that everything in this world has a structure. Most man made structures can be compared to the bone structure of the human body. These two pieces seem like an obvious connection to structure. In a way they Dickinson has turned the lamp and table inside-out to reveal a bone structure. The interior of the human body has become the exterior of the objects made by us. It is odd to think about a circuit of wires running inside of the bones of the lamp. It is a mutation of the nerves outside of the human skeleton.  I suppose you could also view these pieces as a controversial way to preserve the remnants of the deceased. I bring that point up because I have seen examples of people mixing the dust remains of loved ones into glass sculptures and into custom paintings, not to mention the classic urn. The bone lamp and table sparked the question, to me, of how far will people take the creative preservation of the deceased’s remains? Now whether or not these pieces where created to ask that question, I am not sure, they are made out of painted wood, fabric, and glass after all and not actual human bones.

Walking back into the second room of the exhibit you come across a massive heap of vinyl. It’s got some air in it, but no recognizable shape. You wait a few minutes trying to figure it out, trying to keep yourself from reading the wall text and giving it away. Then you here this startling blowing sound and the mass begins to breathe and come to life. You could watch all day to see what the full-blown structure will be, but you realize that the air blowing into it only happens in short bursts, so you read the wall text to find out.  A Sac of Rooms All Day Long (2007) by Alex Schweder, is an inflatable sculpture of large dimensions (21′-0″ x 9′-0″ x 28′-0″ ) that rises and deflates over the course of a day with the use of a fan and is accompanied by a sound piece between inflations by Yann Novak. (Schweder) The two houses together in one body form a “doubled, perhaps pregnant body that inhales and exhales.” (Wall text) Because these two houses have been stuffed into one another the “architectural space results with deformations, writhings, and contortions as the rooms inflate and readjust” (Schweder) This breathing structure is always changing. Each time it deflates, the rooms cave in upon each other differently, and reminds me of the human body, constantly changing ever so slowly.

The last room, or cove like area in the exhibit held my favorite piece by Andrew Kudless. It was like looking at a blanket of entwined human bodies drenched in white paint. By using a map made by a computer algorithm, pole restraints, plaster, and spandex lycra, an elastic fabric, Kudless created forms that resemble the humps and curves of the human body. The P_Wall (2006/2009) wasn’t shaped by hand to mirror the human body, it was through this process of pouring plaster into an elastic fabric and letting it “expand to the material forces.” (Form Growth Behavior) In the video called Form Growth behavior: The making of P_Wall, Kudless describes the human body in a way that relates to the making of the P_Wall:

“our skin is an elastic fabric that then has a fluid interior and as we gain weight, as we get older the amount of fluids in our body changes. The amount of fat, the elasticity of our skin begins to wrinkle and not become as elastic…Our body, an organic body begins to have the same properties as the wall, that they’re undergoing the same material forces.” (Form Growth Behavior)

It is because of the process that the forms on the 45 ft wall installation look like bodies. It is a process in which Kudless only had a certain amount of control. The amount of control he had was similar to how humans have some control over their bodily form. Kudless had control over the amount of plaster to pour into the fabric molds and humans have control over their food intake and amount of exercise. In both cases though there is no complete control over the resulting forms and curves in the P_Wall or the human body.

This exhibition opened my mind to thinking about the curves, structures and forms in architectural structures I see everyday in new ways. The exhibition as a whole has put to rest the idea that architecture inspired by the human body is only inspired by the ideal characteristics of the body. Before this exhibit one might only see traits such as symmetry and smooth flawless skin as inspirations in architecture. There are also the deformities, disease, mutations and all sorts of imperfections of the human body that can be a source of inspiration as I saw from this exhibition, from Aziz + Cucher’s mutated Interiors, to the asymmetrical lumps and bumps created in Andrew Kudless’ P_Wall. Today, I can see how there may be more acceptance for, and sometimes more beauty found in the imperfections of a body than in the past. It is true that most media is still focused on the “ideal” body image and targets those with who don’t have it, but the fact is that there is no ideal body type, because the body is not symmetrical, it is not without its beautiful imperfections and I believe that this exhibit has clearly pointed that out. Pieces like A Sac of Rooms All Day Long, and P_Wall, have given life to the world of architecture. From my experience of the show I can see the life in buildings and structures as materials are allowed act freely in their elastic molds, and as they breathe and decay over time.

Work Cited

“Alex Schweder | A Sac of Rooms Three Times a Day.” Alex Schweder | Home. Web. 14 Oct. 2009. <http://www.alexschweder.com/work/sac_of_rooms.html>.

American Institute of Architects San Francisco Chapter. Web. 11 Oct. 2009. <http://www.aiasf.org/Programs/Public_Programs/Architecture_and_the_City.htm>.

Aziz + Cucher. Interiors (#1, #2, #3). 1998. Chromatic print. SF MOMA, San Francisco, CA.

A C. Interiors. Web. 14 Oct. 2009. <http://www.azizcucher.net/2000.php>.

Dickinson, John. Bone Cigarette Table. 1977. Painted wood. SF MOMA, San Francisco, CA.

Dickinson, John. Bone Floor Lamp. 1978. Wood, fabric, glass, and electrical components. SF MOMA, San Francisco, CA.

Day, E.V. ‘Anatomy of Hugh Hefner’s Private Jet- ‘Cross-Section of Hugh Hefner’s Digestive System’ 1991. Series of 5 blueprints, All 18″ x 24″ Edition of 8. SF MOMA, San Francisco, CA.

Kudless, Andrew. P_Wall. 2006/2009. Plaster and multichannel audio; 45 ft wall installation. SF MOMA, San Francisco, CA.

Niemeyer, Oscar. Vertebrae Chair. 1970. Furniture. Suede and aluminum. SF MOMa, San Francisco, CA.

Schweder, Alex. A Sac of Rooms All Day Long. 2007. Vinyl and fan for air and sound piece by Yann Novak. SF MOMA, San Francisco, CA.

“SFMOMA | Exhibitions Events | Calendar | Sensate: Bodies and Design.” San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. Web. 11 Oct. 2009. <http://www.sfmoma.org/exhibitions/397>.

“SFMOMA | Explore Modern Art | Multimedia | Video | Form, Growth, Behavior: The Making of P_Wall.” San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. Web. 11 Oct. 2009. <http://www.sfmoma.org/multimedia/videos/359>.

Urbach, Henry. Wall text, Introduction: Sensate: Bodies and Design, SF MOMA, San Francisco, CA.

Wall text, A Sac of Rooms All Day Long, Sensate: Bodies and Design, SF MOMA, San Francisco, CA.