Critical Halloween: the online competition

Vote NOW for Best Costume on the theme of Banality in architecture.

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  • 31 October 2011
  • New York

Voting has begun!

After successfully hosting Critical Halloween: On Banality, An Architecture Costume Party in New York on October 29, Storefront for Art and Architecture and DomusWeb open the gala to the global online community to vote for People's Choice for best costume. Costumes from the live event were judged by Justin Davidson, Charles Renfro and Wangechi Mutu; now DomusWeb readers will jury the web competition for Best Costume among the more than one hundred entries. Voting is open until November 11.

A unique convergence of hundreds of architects and artists, Critical Halloween was a parade of radical alter egos that responded to everything middling and mediocre in the industry. But just as in the real world of these form-giving disciplines, there were eruptions of inspired creativity and provocative critique that transcended the banal and quotidian. Now readers can rate for themselves how the Cinder Block and the Cloud can unite, whether Goolge SketchUp Guy and Architect Barbie should run away together, and whether a puffy rendition of Philip Johnson's AT&T Building can outclass a cardboard Trump Tower. Photographer Brett Beyer captured the partygoers/contestants on their way in to the event.

Top: Critical Halloween judges Wangechi Mutu, Charles Renfro and Justin Davidson. Photo by Tomaz Azevedo Capobianco. Above: Kap10Kurt and Erin Marsz meet their King Kong/Empire State Building doubles, Bjarke Ingels and Daniel Kidd of BIG. Photo by Brett Beyer.
Top: Critical Halloween judges Wangechi Mutu, Charles Renfro and Justin Davidson. Photo by Tomaz Azevedo Capobianco. Above: Kap10Kurt and Erin Marsz meet their King Kong/Empire State Building doubles, Bjarke Ingels and Daniel Kidd of BIG. Photo by Brett Beyer.

Critical Halloween attracted hundreds of costumed masqueraders to lower Manhattan in the first winter snow for live performances by Hess is More and critique by a jury of notables in the art and architecture world—Justin Davidson, Wangechi Mutu and Charles Renfro—who awarded three costume prizes. Davidson selected Mark Kroeckel and Alison Cutler, who dressed as "Doll Face" 1 and 2. Renfro selected Kyle May and Julia van den Hout, who dressed as "human scales." Mutu selected Lisa and Ted Landrum who dressed as "Eyes of the Beholder." Daniel Arsham received an honorable mention for "Cloud." Prizes included a print by architectural photographer Dean Kaufman, a print by Madelon Vriesendrop and a drawing by Ryue Nishizawa.

Kyle May and Julia van den Hout won for their impassive costume/performance as the Scalies. Photo by Tomaz Azevedo Capobianco.
Storefront Director Eva Franch in concept costume, Leed [light] and mirror [stage]: Instant Green Architecture Agent [architect?]. Photo by Brett Beyer.
Georgeen Theodore and Tobias Amborst of Interboro Partners. Photo by Brett Beyer.
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