FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
January 1, 1985


Susana Torre

On (Post Modern) Space

January 19 – February 16, 1985

Gallery Hours: Tuesday – Saturday, 10-6; Monday by appointment

This installation is intended to confront the observer with the formal and symbolic structures of architectural space. It is also intended as a critique of certain assumptions about the character and qualities of post-modern space.

The design for the installation began with the isolation of certain ideas from an unbuilt project for an African Consulate in New York. This project is documented in a 9" x 3" drawing included in the installation, a conceptual, analytical drawing concerning the process of thinking about architecture space.

Within post-modern architecture, two opposing attitudes contend. One looks back to a pre-modern, neoclassical notion of a space made of room and sequence. It rejects modern architecture's aspiration to erase distinctions between inside and outside and between social and formal hierarchies of occupation, an aspiration exemplified by the non-hierarchial structural grid. The other more critical attitude confronts the condition of modern space, seeking to redefine it by introducing hierarchy and specificity; thus it proposes the juxtaposition of seemingly opposite conditions to give post-modern space its character and definition. In effect, post-modern space emerges from each attempt to "re-think" modern space so that the grid shows through the over-written spatial text. The tension implicit in this condition reflects the duality of contemporary human consciousness, straddling the intimate and the monumental, the private and the public, the personal and the political worlds.

The installation consists of a grid marked by split columns and overlaid with a segment of cylinder. Because the grid stands as the symbol of instrumental rationality and can be seen as a device to bring all wilderness under control, the circular form of the double silk curtain introduces the spatial presence of the Other. It forms a specific, center-related space that is at once secluded and completely exposed. It echoes with memories of Lily Reich's "Silk Café" but also theater dressing rooms or ancient ritual spaces. They are incomplete without each other. Together, they define the spatial experience. One column belongs to both grid and circle. Twin "accusatory" chair props remind the observer of the questioning nature of the project.

Susana Torre was assisted in the design of the gallery adaptation by Jeffery Bacon and Peter Pfau.

The public is invited to the opening on Saturday, January 19th. A reception will be held from 5 to 7 PM on that evening. The gallery is open Tuesday through Saturday from 10 AM to 6 PM, Mondays by appointment only. Admission is free.

For further information concerning the exhibition contact Lynn Cassaniti, for publicity photographs contact Barbara Goldner at 212-226-3232.