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CURRENT THRILLS | MASTER PLANNING | QUEENSLAND | WESTERLY | DOWN SOUTH | REMOTE AREA WORK | TOP END | BLUE | TROPPO @ THE NPG |
TROPPO @ THE NPGTroppo were 1 of 5 practices invited to participate in an exhibition at the
National Portrait Gallery September 2009.
The exhibition was entitled 'Australian Style'.
The brief was to elaborate on what the creative process meant to us -
or where do we come from as Architects (and where are we going?)...........The concept
An ephemeral ‘canvas of ideas’ hovers precariously above a denser, solidly grounded ‘ark of creations’. Beyond, portraits float in blackness, capturing elopers in nature’s inspirational screens.
Viewers are invited into shelter afforded by the canvas above, to rest and leave their mark on the soft yet sure, canoe-proportioned ark below. The ark’s reality is undeniable, but its ballast of paperwork from files and waste paper bins - aborted sketches, applications, correspondence, contractual minutae, and workings out - is its substance.
The installation:
- balances ‘suspended and ephemeral’ with ‘dense and grounded’;
- balances and affords a play of light and dark, of sun and shadow;
- is sprung and moves on touch, and with the shifting of air;
- ...yet is surely grounded;
- balances tension with surety; and
- works with the raw and natural...
- to the wrought, and finally highly polished
It could also be perceived to contain the 2 key ingredients of ‘solar passive design’ - solar control and thermal ballast.
It captures chronologically and regionally the body of Troppo work, referring to the inspiration of architectures past, the material gifts of nature, and the beauty of artisanship.
ELEMENTS / MATERIALS
Shelter above: Canvas of Ideas
A tense, precarious, slung structure with senses of makeshift/ ancient Indigenous/ ephemeral.
- Bone fabric (Calico) inkjet printed - a collage of open line design and working drawings, perhaps with word ideas, loosely chronologically arranged (single digital image) - black on ‘white’
- Copper suspension wire (stranded, recycled, patinated), metal springs, shackles
- Protruding sticks (as battens, tied off to the canvas), initially randomly located, with bark, rising to stripped, and string-bound/ trimmed...
- Concluding in highly machined & polished slats, arranged in tight, equal spaces
- Light will cast shadow plays on the floor and viewers below, through the canvas and slats/ sticks arrangements, will cats shadow plays on the floor and viewers below
- The sound of wind through trees, with bird sounds will complete the ephemeral the environment
The canvas structure is stayed at its ‘beginnings’ end by rammed earth weights of soils from the Practice’s regions of activity; and at its more polished ‘conclusion’, it is secured by a finely trimmed steel bearer.
Resting place below: Ark of Creations
Soft yet sure - openly welcoming, yet containing - homely and safe.
- Black, yet same fabric as for shelter - a collage of digitised high contrast black & white (photoshop ‘sharpen edges’, ‘texture/ grain’) images of built work, loosely chronologically arranged (single digital image) - effectively ‘white’ on black
- Fabric is sewn into a bolster 3m x 0.6m x 0.4m - a kind of long bean bag of canoe proportions
- Stuffing - paper (old ‘unbuilts’, contractual minutae, correspondence, compressed as pellets
- The ark will ‘give’, being shaped by the users imprint, perhaps making gentle shifting sounds
- Troppo NPG Tshirts
Buy yours today!
Limited edition Troppo NPG Tshirt to commemorate our exhibit at the National Portait Gallery's Exhibition in Canberra.
2 rad designs to keep you cool this summer. Available in black and white and mens, womens and kids sizes from XS- XXL
$25 + P&H
Email Jeremy for orders.
