Morphosis - The Land of the Creative City
by Helio Eudoro
Morphosis is the name of the Thom Mayne’s architecture firm who leading the OCAD CREATIVE CITY CAMPUS expansion. Definition of morphosis on Webster. 1: the mode of development of an organism or one of its parts. 2: a nonadaptive structural modification.
My project intends a conversation between the American artist Robert Rauschenberg (1925 - 2008) and Brazilian artist Lygia Clark (1920-1988). Rauschenberg, which was well known for working with non-traditional materials and objects were employed in various combinations, and Lygia Clark a Brazilian post-concretist, who challenging traditional models of perception, participation, and objecthood, “Clark created objects that exceeded the bounds of the autonomous transcendental picture plane. By fracturing the surfaces of her paintings, creating objects that possess an interior and exterior, and by requiring her participants to physically manipulate her work” (Art Observer)
Using found objects, specifically metal scrap from OCAD recycled trash, I intend to activate the OCAD Creative City project in the way it is impacting the performance of current students and also showing the waste that may be occurring in the renovation of the facilities.
The elements and material chosen for the installation are a reference to Rauschenberg work Gluts (1965), who made it with metal scrap and others from industrial processes, transforming them into sculptures. ‘It’s a time of glut. Greed is rampant. I’m just exposing it, trying to wake people up. I simply want to present people with their ruins ...’ – quoted in Gluts Guggenheim Museum, New York, 2009. Morphosis is also a response to the Lygia Clark Bichos,1965 (critters), consist on folding steel sculptures that are manipulable and allow the viewer to constantly change and rearrange their articulated pieces, creating an interactive work.
The location chosen for the installation Morphosis - The Land of the Creative City is the Butterfield Park, the site works both private and public space, and my intention serves as a protest and as an alternative to the lack of space for students to work, store and exhibit their work.
Butterfield Park, Toronto - Dez 3, 2019