Plimsoll Gallery
Centre for the Arts
Hunter Street, Hobart
Wally Barda, Greg Burgess, Norman Day, Bruce Goodsir, Jennifer Hill, Peter Jensen, Corbett Lyon/Cameron Lyon, Ian McDougall, Richard Munday, Gary O’Reilly, Ian Robinson/Kai Chen, Alex Selenitsch, Des Smith, Michael Viney and Mark Willet.
Introduction: Paul Zika, Essays: David Saunders, John Lewis and Leigh Wooley.
68-page catalogue: ISBN 0 86779 001 6
<%media(Place_of_contemplation_catalogue.pdf|Download PDF: Place of Contemplation Catalogue)%>
Download PDF: Place of Contemplation Catalogue
PDF: A Place of Contemplation, Mercury, 1983
INTRODUCTION Concern with space is not peculiar to architects, but basic to architecture is the determining of place and the articulation of space. To highlight these pre-occupations within an art gallery context is difficult, if indeed possible! The works themselves cannot be located in the gallery, although existing works can be documented. However this documentation does not convey the physicality and volume of the original – models alter the scale, drawings employ a coded unfamiliar language, and photographs strongly effect the viewers’ perception of the whole. Nor do we have the ability to experience the actual place. Consequently architects have been invited to submit proposals which are in themselves the work. Can architects, however, effectively address themselves to the problem of manipulating spaces using only two dimensional means to convey their deliberations, and still remain within the parameters of architecture? In this transference of media do other facilities and skills predominate? Furthermore, the participating architects are not constrained by a particular predetermined site or function, although both are integral aspects of the solution. The place should be of a contemplative or reflective nature, where the space itself eIIicits that response. Practical constraints have been removed, and the usual guidelines of an architects brief reversed in order to concentrate on how architects evolve a space. The exhibition will endeavour to highlight the decision making process in determining an essential element of architecture, rather than providing replicas or illusions of structures. Twenty-five architects were invited to submit proposals. The submissions were to be made in two dimensional form on the equivalent of two AI size sheets of paper, with an accompanying statement. The fifteen submissions received constitute the exhibition and are contained within this catalogue. Paul Zika