Biennial Exhibition - Artificial Realities
- Submitting institution
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University of East London
- Unit of assessment
- 13 - Architecture, Built Environment and Planning
- Output identifier
- 25
- Type
- M - Exhibition
- Venue(s)
- Courtauld Institute, London
- Open access status
- -
- Month of first exhibition
- -
- Year of first exhibition
- 2016
- URL
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- Supplementary information
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- Request cross-referral to
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- Output has been delayed by COVID-19
- No
- COVID-19 affected output statement
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- Forensic science
- No
- Criminology
- No
- Interdisciplinary
- Yes
- Number of additional authors
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- Research group(s)
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- Proposed double-weighted
- No
- Reserve for an output with double weighting
- No
- Additional information
- The East Wing Biennial is a significant event within one of “the most prestigious specialist college for the study of the history of art in the world."[1] Initiated by Joshua Compston in 1991, ‘Artificial Realites’ was the 12th Biennial, including exhibitors such as Tracey Emin, Anthony Gormley, Edmund De Wal and Rachel Whiteread.
Chandler’s installation, commissioned following competitive interview by the Oversight Committee is based on Helen Howard’s stratigraphic analysis of the Fine Rooms of Somerset House (occupied since 1781). It is both a real and a fictionalized re-presentation of that knowledge through the use of historic colour ‘windows’ which make the visitor (and students of the Courtauld Institute alike} mindful of their place in the ongoing occupation of the spaces they inhabit. The artworks themselves are derived from eight categories based on Howard’s investigations, the stratified palettes providing the colour criteria for the installation, blended with actual paint layering in key locations. The paint materials were sponsored by the ‘Little Greene Paint Company’.
Howard’s stratigraphic analyses was published for the first time as part of the installation catalogue informing visitors about the artwork.
Chandler collaborated with Gilles Restin and post-graduate students of the UEL Architecture programme to design digitally produced components to respond to the converted café space in the courtauld.
Chandler discussed the installation at a Biennial round table event as part of the Biennial, and in a formal public lecture at Somerset House discussing the Courtauld as a social structure as much as a museum piece. Through the techniques of building fabric conservation the significance of people and their inhabitation is revealed and discussed, and the reduction of our historic buildings to heritage spectacle can be confronted and refuted.
The project was presented at the Catholic University (Santiago de Chile) in October 2107 by special invitation.
- Author contribution statement
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- Non-English
- No
- English abstract
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