Drawing in space

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Doug Burton reports on two new works at the Serpentine in Kensington Gardens and finds an interesting conceptual linking between this years startling new pavilion and last year’s sculpted memory.

An interesting visit to London last week saw me stumble across 2 creative acts that demonstrated a sense of the playful within the context of a public art project. The Serpentine Pavilion has produced many interesting architectural projects with a sculptural edge, that with a brief and budget push the artists and architects conceptual boundaries. Last year I was submerged within Herzog and de Meuron /Ai Weiwei’s collaborative subterranean pavilion. There conceptual approach to the project looked at the area of ground that the pavilion stands on and they set about digging away the earth beneath. Acting as archaeologists, and using the revealed structural components of previous pavilions footings they revealed the pre-history to the site and used these contours and obstructions to form the design of the pavilion. The layering of strata that was occurring within the sculpted underground cavernous experience created an incredible sculpted quality to the architectural components, the whole space was clad in cork and made the feeling of descending within the space almost bouncy, safe and ultimately quite cosy. The day I went it was teaming with rain and the roof structure acted as both lid and horizon, framing the outside world into a thin strip of light, which reminded me of the visual effect within a second world war bunker – looking out through the gun slit within the buttress of concrete.

Today’s pavilion has been created by the young Japanese architect Sou Fujimoto. My visit this time was with glorious sunshine, the pavilion rose up in white as if light and ephemeral appearing like an apparition within the landscape of Kensington gardens. There was a fabulous direct contrast between this pavilion and last years, going from the bowls of the earth – to the elevation of a latticed structure, the time lapse of 12months created an intense feeling of memory and history within my sensation of this site. Fujimoto’s design uses 20mm steel box section poles welded together at equal intervals to form three-dimensional boxes that sculpturally evolve throughout the space. The pavilion is like a cloud, it’s a cliché to say so, but the way that it changes as you move around it and through it feels like a form that is folding in and out of your view.



I was interested in the way that Herzog and de Meuron /Ai Weiwei’s pavilion used a sculptural sense of moving from an initial idea to having to work with the space as it was, being pushed and pulled by the obstructions and strata that would engage with the team as they formed the space. Like Michaelangelo releasing the form from its confines within the marble, the 2012 pavilion adopted a traditional sense of space and form, revealing itself as architectural structure as the material was removed. Fujimoto approached his pavilion with an initial idea but a detailed sketchbook full of red ink drawings, rapidly sketching the form out, show an idea developing through the evolution of a thought process to the final working drawing. If you visit the serpentine go into the bookshop and there is a copy of his sketchbook that is a really interesting insight into Fujimoto’s working method.
The use of an idea pushed to its limit within an artistic sculptural context has been produced just round the corner from the pavilion by the Swiss artist duo Fischli and Weiss. There sculpture “Rock on Top of Another Rock” (2012/13) sits in almost satirical contrast to the elevation of the pavilion. The work might seem absurd at first glance but its hiding a clever investigation into the nature of creating a work or art. How did this get hear? how much effort did it take? am I supposed to take this monumental work for granted, as if nature intended this thing to sit here in this way, or is it almost slapping me across the face with its delicate balance and interesting oblique angles. The work for me sits very well against the Fujimoto pavilion with is hyper-realism and perfect geometry the Fischli and Weiss boulders almost make me want to grow into a giant and play with both forms, or even better watch my 2yr old son as he plays with rocks and stickle bricks with all his uncluttered intuition for making things and allowing the world to both sit and evolve.
Top image Fischli Weiss
Second image Ai Weiwei Pavillion 2012
Lower images Fujimoto
All images copyright Doug Burton 2013