Clean Lines
Solo Show at SPACES (June 2024)
Clean Lines examines the maintenance of iconic modernist skyscrapers: these repetitive acts in service of repelling the surrounding detritus tarnishing this pristine architectural image. In the works, this detritus is collected and embedded into the skyscraper: the shiny glass facades are infiltrated with weeds, pen caps, and pigeon feathers; the Lever House floor plans are printed in dust; the lobby corners are damp and the air ducts produce a strange secretion.
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Clean Air
(Left above) Bubble solution, ductwork, custom ventilation mechanism.
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Damp Walls
Custom cut and folded aluminum, spray paint.
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Windex
Plexiglass, Aluminum angles, bolts, silicone, dead leaves, weeds, pebble, bird droppings, pen cap, brick fragment.
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Windex (Detail)
Plexiglass, Aluminum angles, bolts, silicone, dead leaves, weeds, pebble, bird droppings, pen cap, brick fragment.
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Gallery View
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Wet Corner
Custom cut and folded aluminum, spray paint.
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Arm + Hammer
Plexiglass, aluminum angles, bolts, silicone, pigeon feather, weeds, pebbles, dust, twigs, rusted nail.
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Soft Scrub
Plexiglass, aluminum angles, bolts, silicone, steel ring, chain, stainless steel bucket, Soft Scrub Bleach, cigarette butt, dust, pebble, weeds.
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Soft Scrub (Detail)
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Comet
Plexiglass, aluminum angles, bolts, silicone, bottle cap, pigeon feather, pebble, dust, dead leaf.Solo Show at SPACES (June 2024)
Clean Lines examines the maintenance of iconic modernist skyscrapers: these repetitive acts in service of repelling the surrounding detritus tarnishing this pristine architectural image. In the works, this detritus is collected and embedded into the skyscraper: the shiny glass facades are infiltrated with weeds, pen caps, and pigeon feathers; the Lever House floor plans are printed in dust; the lobby corners are damp and the air ducts produce a strange secretion.
Clean Air
(Left above) Bubble solution, ductwork, custom ventilation mechanism.
Damp Walls
Custom cut and folded aluminum, spray paint.
Windex
Plexiglass, Aluminum angles, bolts, silicone, dead leaves, weeds, pebble, bird droppings, pen cap, brick fragment.
Windex (Detail)
Plexiglass, Aluminum angles, bolts, silicone, dead leaves, weeds, pebble, bird droppings, pen cap, brick fragment.
Gallery View
Wet Corner
Custom cut and folded aluminum, spray paint.
Arm + Hammer
Plexiglass, aluminum angles, bolts, silicone, pigeon feather, weeds, pebbles, dust, twigs, rusted nail.
Soft Scrub
Plexiglass, aluminum angles, bolts, silicone, steel ring, chain, stainless steel bucket, Soft Scrub Bleach, cigarette butt, dust, pebble, weeds.
Soft Scrub (Detail)
Comet
Soaked Ceiling + Lever House Plan Series (2)
Custom cut and folded aluminum, spray paint.
Aluminum dibond print
Soaked Ceiling
Custom cut and folded aluminum, spray paint.
Lever House Plan 2 (Pressed Crease of a Pin Stripe Suit)
(Left) Aluminum dibond print
Lever House Plan 1 (Public Trace)
(Right) Aluminum dibond print
Lever House Plan 6 (Compatibility)
Right: Aluminum dibond print
Lever House Plan 5 (Silk Tie)
Left: Aluminum dibond print
Lever House Plan 5 (Silk Tie) Detail
Gallery View
Moist Handle
Custom cut and folded aluminum, spray paint.
Gallery Text
A daily commute in New York City, like many major cities, involves a stroll past immense modernist skyscrapers: three-story tall lobbies, polished marble floors and black leather furniture with chrome detail. The iconic architectural spaces house the city’s largest corporations and each night, these brightly lit, cavernous displays of global private wealth become the backdrop for their own upkeep. Soap-covered windows, the familiar whirr of a floor buffer and the rhythmic motion of a vacuum going back and forth - The repetitive acts in service of repelling the surrounding detritus tarnishing this pristine architectural image.
In Clean Lines, this detritus is collected and embedded into the icon of the modernist skyscraper: the shiny glass facades are infiltrated with weeds, pen caps, and pigeon feathers; the Lever House floor plans are printed in dust; the lobby corners are damp and the air ducts produce an inexplicable yet mesmerizing secretion.
The Lever House is a skyscraper located in Midtown Manhattan; it was designed by SOM for Unilever. The design brief was for the structure to be a living advertisement for the soap conglomerate. In response, SOM made “cleaning” a part of the building structure by embedding tracks for a permanent window washing gondola located on the roof. The pristine facade became synonymous with being maintained: physical maintenance as well as status maintenance. Clean Lines presents a modernist architecture that is unmaintainable, a metaphor of public defiance towards these inaccessible spaces of corporate wealth.
Photography by Amber N. Ford, courtesy of SPACES