New York based gallery Chamber has just unveiled its latest instalment of its yearlong residency by photographer and filmmaker Andrew Zuckerman. Since the art space – which describes itself as a ‘21st century cabinet of curiosities’ - launched in 2014, Chamber has been calling on a selection of creative talents to curate their own yearlong exhibition there (previous curators include Dutch design duo Studio Job).
2016’s first exhibition, titled Capsule #4: Unpacking the Cube, has just opened, featuring a selection of works by architecture studios Leong Leong, Levenbetts and Steven Holl.
Zuckerman approached the three practices at different moments of their professional paths, requesting each firm to abstractly encapsulate their philosophy within the simple form of a cube. Each of the architects had to distil their fundamental values as a firm, touching on broad themes of social values, spatial considerations, conceptual development and experimentation.
Chris and Dominic Leong, of Leong Leong, explore ideas of architecture and collectivism, executing a series called Toolkit for a newer age, which features nine objects constructed from Pink Himalayan salt.
Levenbetts’ Not to scale series approaches strategies of aggregation, exploring the mentality of ‘utter scalability’. They aim through their work to play with the idea of scale through different landscapes, housing structures and home furnishings, such as seating arrangements and shelving.
Steven Holl’s selection (titled Ex of In or Explorations of In) was seen through the lens of the firm’s think tank. The objects are executed in an array of materials, such as concrete aluminium, walnut wood and 3d printed matter, exploring their vast possibilities in architecture.
The trio’s themes and physical proposals may be extremely broad and varied, but thanks to the use of the ‘cube’ as the common thread that binds them together, they sit side-by-side in harmony, instigating useful dialogue about space and form, small and large, man and architecture.
