Stagecraft

The exhibition at GSAPP in NY explores the synergy between architectural models and photography and its renewed relevance as a wellspring of architectural invention.

Jørn Utzon, Bagsværd Church, Bagsværd, Denmark, 1976

The Arthur Ross Architecture Gallery at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation (Columbia GSAPP) presents newly commissioned photographs by James Ewing alongside models of significant 20th-century buildings in the exhibition “Stagecraft: Models and Photos”. Stagecraft explores the synergy between architectural models and photography and the renewed relevance of model photography as a wellspring of architectural invention.

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Le Corbusier, Pavillon des Temps Nouveaux, Paris, France, 1937

Gerrit Rietveld, Schröder House, Utrecht, The Netherlands, 1924

Gerrit Rietveld, Schröder House, Utrecht, The Netherlands, 1924

Frank Lloyd Wright, Samuel Freeman House, Los Angeles, USA, 1924

Peter Zumthor, Saint Benedict Chapel, Sumvitg, Switzerland, 1988

James Ewing’s photographs invite a reexamination of how architectural creativity and thinking unfold through the picturing of objects and the crafting of images. Using the Ross Gallery as a photographic studio for several weeks, Ewing experimented with a range of lighting, framing and staging techniques that drew upon his research on the history of model photography.
Illustrating structural details rather than whole buildings, the models were made during the 1990s and early 2000s by Columbia GSAPP students of Professor Kenneth Frampton as a pedagogical exploration of the history of architectural tectonics.

“Stagecraft: Models and Photos” includes 14 photographs by James Ewing, with multiple interpretations of the six models. Rather than realistic constructions that simulate buildings, Ewing’s images instead offer a meditation on how the intersection of material and visual modes of representation can prompt new ways of seeing, understanding and talking about architecture.

Norman Foster, Renault Distribution Center, Swindon, UK, 1982

until 10 March 2017
Stagecraft: Models and Photos
curated by Irene Sunwoo and Adam Bandler
Arthur Ross Architecture Gallery
Columbia University’s Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation (Columbia GSAPP)

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