Surface Tension

exhibitions supplements

Following the publication of Surface Tension: Problematics of Site in 2003, Surface Tension appears regularly as a series of published Supplements (launched 2006) that continues the artistic and philosophical program initiated in the original anthology. The series addresses questions of site-specific art, public and architectural space, and location-based practices, supporting investigations onto public practices through writing, documentation, and field work, while questioning what role such practices can offer in defining contemporary culture.

series editors: Ken Ehrlich (Los Angeles) and Brandon LaBelle (Berlin)

Surface Tension Supplement No 1
Surface Tension Supplement No 2
Surface Tension Supplement No 3
Surface Tension Supplement No 4
Surface Tension Supplement No 5
Surface Tension Supplement No 6

Contents:

Introduction: Ken Ehrlich and Brandon LaBelle
Goto Newton, 'Political Meanings: the legacy of interventionist practice in Brazil'
Aoife O’Brien, 'The Art Space Imperative - a recent reading'
Robin Wilson, 'Blue Sky Thinking: A Utopia in Bristol'
Claudine Isé, 'Vanishing Points: on the exhibition at the Wexner Art Center, 2005'
Brandon Lattu, 'Untitled: Slide Piece Edit'
Ken Ehrlich, 'The Architectural Sign: Los Angeles in Buildings and Words’
Kathy Battista, 'Let There Be Light: on recent light art
SIMPARCH, 'Dirty Water Initiative’
e-Xplo, 'Night Starring Columbus Ohio'
Scott Berzofsky, Nicholas Petr, Nicholas Wisniewski, 'Notes for an Oppositional Urbanism in Baltimore'
Jennifer Gabrys, 'Paper Mountains, Disposable Cities’
Brandon LaBelle, 'Experiments in Reading Experiments in Architecture'

 download Introduction

Surface Tension Supplement No.1
Edited by Ken Ehrlich & Brandon LaBelle
ISBN-10: 0-9772594-0-4
ISBN 13: 978-0-9772594-0-3

Identifying an intensified concern for place-based production in art and architecture, Surface Tension Supplements addresses questions of site-specific art, public and architectural design, and location-based practice. With Supplement No. 1 issues of spatial practice are explored in critical essays by Jennifer Gabrys on the geographic implications of Fresh Kills Landfill, Scott Berzofsky, Nicholas Petr, Nicholas Wisniewski & Michael Rakowitz on artistic interventions in Baltimore, and by Claudine Isé, curator of “Vanishing Point”, an exhibition at the Wexner Center for the Arts, which questions the aesthetics of urban non-spaces through recent photography and film. In addition field reports by Robin Wilson on public art projects in Bristol, Goto Newton on the cultures of interventionist practice in Curitiba Brazil, and Ken Ehrlich on the infrastructure of signage in Los Angeles as seen through the photographic works of Brandon Lattu complement the articles. In addition, documentation of public projects in Tijuana and Ohio by the artist groups Simparch and e-Xplo will be presented, along with projects designed specifically for the book by Sophie Warren and Jonathan Mosely, a Bristol-based team working with questions of utopian architecture, and Brandon LaBelle with a textual-photographic meditation on experimental architecture. Additional writings by Kathy Battista and Aoife O’Brien provide critical and creative perspectives on recent events, books, and exhibitions working with questions of architecture, performance, and media.