Roomograph

Alex Schweder La's inflatable/deflatable environment on view at the deCordova Museum retains the traces of its last inhabitant.

Roomograph, part of the exhibition Temporary Structures: Performing Architecture in Contemporary Art at the deCordova Sculpture Park and Museum follows other large scale pneumatic works from Berlin and Cambridge-based architect Alex Schweder La. This installation features two inflatable rooms zipped together that inflate and deflate in the dark, pushing each other out of the way as they morph.

When in their stable position, visitors can occupy Roomograph with the lights on. The inhabitable areas are lined with white fur. When the lights are out the fur glows in the dark, in which visitors can see a trace of themselves as a shadow. The photosensitive treatment to the surfaces indicates where the visitors sat or reclined and blocked the light from the lining. As other rooms inflate and the previously inhabited room deflates, the whole space then becomes "gooey" as it slowly becomes displaced. This exchange of inflation and deflation continues as the day progresses. The rooms are characterized by the types of social relations that the furry surfaces encourage; more social exchange with the connected central portion and more private interaction with the inhabitable nodes.

<i>Roomograph</i> by Alex Schweder La, from the the exhibition <i>Temporary Structures: Performing Architecture in Contemporary Art</i> at the deCordova Sculpture Park and Museum. — *Roomograph* by Alex Schweder La, from the the exhibition *Temporary Structures: Performing Architecture in Contemporary Art* at the deCordova Sculpture Park and Museum.

Roomograph is an apt successor to another human/environmental project by Schweder La from 2009, Sac of Rooms All Day Long, now part of the SFMOMA's permanent collection. Roomograph and Sac of Rooms All Day Long are both inflatables whose volumes exceed their allotted spaces. Like most architecture, both Roomograph and Sac of Rooms mirror the human body. Unlike most buildings, however, both show us the bodies we have, rather than those we idealize.

<i>Sac of Rooms All Day Long</i> by Alex Schweder La (2009). — *Sac of Rooms All Day Long* by Alex Schweder La (2009).

Temporary Structures: Performing Architecture in Contemporary Art is on view at the deCordova from until December 31, 2011. This exhibition features thirteen artists and collaboratives who underscore the changeable and active nature of our built environment. In doing so, they take architecture beyond its obvious function as shelter and design and examine its social, psychological, and cultural resonance in our lives. Video, sculpture, installation, and performance converge to address architecture through three broad themes: intervention, mobility, and participation.

The rooms are characterized by the types of social relations that the furry surfaces encourage.

<i>Roomograph</i> by Alex Schweder La; visitors recline on a fur-lined photosensitive inflatable. — *Roomograph* by Alex Schweder La; visitors recline on a fur-lined photosensitive inflatable.

Temporary Structures uses nontraditional spaces of the Museum's unique building and outdoor spaces to present an avante-garde exhibition comprised of site-specific, performative, and participatory installations, engaging Museum visitors in a new way throughout the duration of the show.

The surface retains traces of the visitor's outline.

Featured artists in Temporary Structures include Vito Acconci, Ant Farm, Mary Ellen Carroll, Kate Gilmore, Liz Glynn, Gordon Matta-Clark, Mary Mattingly, Sarah Oppenheimer, robbinschilds, Alex Schweder La, Ward Shelley/Douglas Paulson, Mika Tajima, and Erwin Wurm.

Roomograph was funded with an award from the Graham Foundation.

<i>Roomograph</i> then deflates in the dark. — *Roomograph* then deflates in the dark.

<i>Roomograph</i> by Alex Schweder La. — *Roomograph* by Alex Schweder La.

Roomograph

Alex Schweder La's inflatable/deflatable environment on view at the deCordova Museum retains the traces of its last inhabitant.

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