Spaces, forms and narrations. Je est un autre by Marshall Brown
09/06/2019.
Western Exhibitions [Chicago] USA 7.06 > 27.07.2019
metalocus, RODRIGO GARCÍA
metalocus, RODRIGO GARCÍA
Starting next June 7, the Western Exhibitions gallery located in Chicago will present its third solo exhibition with Marshall Brown, "Je est un autre", in Galleries 1 and 2. The artist tries to create new spaces, forms and narrations that embody new relationships between the one and the many using the historically disruptive properties of collage and montage.
The name of the exhibition, Je est un autre, refers to Brown's rejection of purist or reductionist worldviews through his hybrid works. The exhibition is free and can be visited from 5 to 8 pm until July 27.
The name of the exhibition, Je est un autre, refers to Brown's rejection of purist or reductionist worldviews through his hybrid works. The exhibition is free and can be visited from 5 to 8 pm until July 27.
Marshall Brown. "The Principle of Inconsistency", 2019. Collage on archival paper. 17 3/4h x 23 3/8w in. Image courtesy of Western Exhibitions
Marshall Brown. "A Part, Not the Whole", 2019. Collage on archival paper. 10h x 13w in. Image courtesy of Western Exhibitions.
Marshall Brown. "Error as Hidden Intention", 2019. Collage on archival paper. 13h x 10w in. Image courtesy of Western Exhibitions.
Marshall Brown. "We Need Holes", 2019. Collage on archival paper. 13h x 10w in. Image courtesy of Western Exhibitions.
Marshall Brown. "The Thing Most Easily Forgotten", 2019. Collage on archival paper. 18h x 23 1/2w in. Image courtesy of Western Exhibitions.
Marshall Brown. "Nothing for as Long as Possible", 2019. Collage on archival paper. 23 1/2h x 18w in. Image courtesy of Western Exhibitions.
Marshall Brown. "Towards the Insignificant", 2019. Collage on archival paper. 23 1/2h x 18w in. Image courtesy of Western Exhibitions.
Marshall Brown. "Accretion", 2019. Collage on archival paper. 18h x 23 1/2w in. Image courtesy of Western Exhibitions.
Marshall Brown. "A Choice to Do Both", 2019. Collage on archival paper. 23 1/2h x 18w in. Image courtesy of Western Exhibitions.
Marshall Brown. "Easement", 2019. Collage on archival paper. 23 1/2h x 18w in. Image courtesy of Western Exhibitions.
Marshall Brown. "Repetition as a Form of Change", 2019. Collage on archival paper. 23 1/2h x 18w in. Image courtesy of Western Exhibitions.
Marshall Brown. "Simple Subtraction", 2019. Collage on archival paper. 23 1/2h x 18w in. Image courtesy of Western Exhibitions.
Marshall Brown. "Structure, Expansions, Contractions", 2019. Graphite and pastel on paper. 23h x 31w in. Image courtesy of Western Exhibitions.
Marshall Brown. "Chora (the fold and the wave)", 2019. Graphite on paper. 32h x 39w in. Image courtesy of Western Exhibitions.
Marshall Brown. "Plan for an American House", 2019. Ink and graphite on paper. 34h x 43w in. Image courtesy of Western Exhibitions.
Marshall Brown. "A New Place", 2019. Collage, ink, and graphite on paper. 32h x 42w in. Image courtesy of Western Exhibitions.
Marshall Brown. "Entropy, Rules, Definitions", 2019. Ink on paper. 23h x 28w in. Image courtesy of Western Exhibitions.
Marshall Brown. "Archipelago Number One", 2019. Ink on paper. 24h x 18w in. Image courtesy of Western Exhibitions.
Marshall Brown. "Smooth Growth House", 2018. Wood. 11h x 42w x 25d in. Image courtesy of Western Exhibitions.
Marshall Brown. "Smooth Growth House", 2018. Wood. 11h x 42w x 25d in. Image courtesy of Western Exhibitions.
In Gallery 1, Brown expands upon his abstraction of architectural photography with a new series of collages that create even more dynamic perceptions of space, scale, and orientation than his Chimera collage series from 2014. In this new series Brown samples imagery from photographs taken during the golden age of post-war architectural photography. His curated fragments, culled from monographs on significant figures from the history of architectural photography, are hand-cut and fused together onto Arches hot press watercolour paper.
Looming facades, stark shadows, and structural details seamlessly support one another to form unique architectural spaces and narratives — offering no site or function, Brown’s assemblages look toward new, boundless spaces. From Zach Mortice, Architect Magazine, in 2017: “Brown isn’t trying to make buildings more like collages. He’s trying to get us to acknowledge that buildings are collages, and that the future of ‘making new history’ comes from reassembling the pieces of the old.”
In Gallery 2, Brown presents a multimedia installation that details the future history of Daniel Freeman, an architect turned citizen-settler after a great flood destroys Chicago in 2033. Freeman’s story is anchored by a 4-minute digital video, “The New Country,” and augmented with architectural drawings on drafting vellum, sketches on tracing paper and wooden scale models. In Brown’s vision, ongoing shocks of climate mutation lead to an environmental apocalypse.
Freeman pioneers a new way of living, eventually codified as “Smooth Growth,” in which a truly independent society is formed through collective stewardship and spatial solidarity. Brown uses this speculative architectural fiction to offer a progressive vision of a boundless and radically American civilization. Looking beyond our present moment of environmental crisis and social isolation, Brown proposes a future aimed at social ownership and collective independence.
Crossing disciplinary boundaries and extending from the intertwined histories of modern art and architecture, Marshall Brown is an architect, urbanist, and futurist whose work creates new connections, associations, and meanings among disconnected architectural and urban remnants.
His work is in the collections of Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Arkansas, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Museum of Contemporary Photography and the University Club, both in Chicago. Brown’s work has been exhibited at the 2016 Venice Architecture Biennale, the 2017 Chicago Architecture Biennial, the Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit, The Arts Club of Chicago, the Architecture and Design Museum Los Angeles, and recently in a 10-year survey, Recurrent Visions: The Architecture of Marshall Brown Projects, at the Princeton University School of Architecture. His projects and essays have appeared in several books and journals, including The New York Times Magazine, Metropolis, Crain’s, Architectural Record, Art Papers, The Believer, the Journal of Architectural Education and Log. Marshall Brown received his masters’ degrees at Harvard University. Brown is based in New Jersey and is an associate professor at Princeton University.
Looming facades, stark shadows, and structural details seamlessly support one another to form unique architectural spaces and narratives — offering no site or function, Brown’s assemblages look toward new, boundless spaces. From Zach Mortice, Architect Magazine, in 2017: “Brown isn’t trying to make buildings more like collages. He’s trying to get us to acknowledge that buildings are collages, and that the future of ‘making new history’ comes from reassembling the pieces of the old.”
In Gallery 2, Brown presents a multimedia installation that details the future history of Daniel Freeman, an architect turned citizen-settler after a great flood destroys Chicago in 2033. Freeman’s story is anchored by a 4-minute digital video, “The New Country,” and augmented with architectural drawings on drafting vellum, sketches on tracing paper and wooden scale models. In Brown’s vision, ongoing shocks of climate mutation lead to an environmental apocalypse.
Freeman pioneers a new way of living, eventually codified as “Smooth Growth,” in which a truly independent society is formed through collective stewardship and spatial solidarity. Brown uses this speculative architectural fiction to offer a progressive vision of a boundless and radically American civilization. Looking beyond our present moment of environmental crisis and social isolation, Brown proposes a future aimed at social ownership and collective independence.
Crossing disciplinary boundaries and extending from the intertwined histories of modern art and architecture, Marshall Brown is an architect, urbanist, and futurist whose work creates new connections, associations, and meanings among disconnected architectural and urban remnants.
His work is in the collections of Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Arkansas, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Museum of Contemporary Photography and the University Club, both in Chicago. Brown’s work has been exhibited at the 2016 Venice Architecture Biennale, the 2017 Chicago Architecture Biennial, the Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit, The Arts Club of Chicago, the Architecture and Design Museum Los Angeles, and recently in a 10-year survey, Recurrent Visions: The Architecture of Marshall Brown Projects, at the Princeton University School of Architecture. His projects and essays have appeared in several books and journals, including The New York Times Magazine, Metropolis, Crain’s, Architectural Record, Art Papers, The Believer, the Journal of Architectural Education and Log. Marshall Brown received his masters’ degrees at Harvard University. Brown is based in New Jersey and is an associate professor at Princeton University.
More information
Location
Western Exhibitions. 1709 W Chicago Ave. Chicago, IL 60622 USA.
T. 312.480.8390
Dates
Gallery hours. Tuesday thru Saturday. 11am to 6pm. June 7, 2019 - July 27, 2019.
Marshall Brown
Marshall Brown is a licensed architect and urban designer. Brown is a Graham Foundation grantee, and represented the United States at the 2016 Venice Architecture Biennale. He has also exhibited at the Arts Club of Chicago, the Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit, and Western Exhibitions. In 2016 he appeared in the PBS documentary “Ten Towns that Changed America.” Brown was a 2010 MacDowell Fellow, and also the first Saarinen Visiting Critic at the Cranbrook Academy of Art. He received his Masters degrees in Architecture and Urban Design from Harvard University where he won the Druker Fellowship for urban design.
Marshall Brown is also an Associate Professor at the Princeton University School of Architecture where he directs the Center for Architecture, Urbanism, and Infrastructure. His teaching and research add tremendous value to his practice. Brown has served on the editorial board of the Journal of Architectural Education, is a board member of the Arts Club of Chicago, and has lectured at the Chicago Humanities Festival, University of Michigan, Northwestern University, the Graham Foundation, Auburn University, the University of Toronto, and Harvard University. His projects and essays have appeared in several books and journals, including The New York Times Magazine, Metropolis, The Architect's Newspaper, Architectural Record, Crain's, The New York Daily News, Art Papers, The Believer, and New Directions in Sustainable Design.
Marshall Brown is also an Associate Professor at the Princeton University School of Architecture where he directs the Center for Architecture, Urbanism, and Infrastructure. His teaching and research add tremendous value to his practice. Brown has served on the editorial board of the Journal of Architectural Education, is a board member of the Arts Club of Chicago, and has lectured at the Chicago Humanities Festival, University of Michigan, Northwestern University, the Graham Foundation, Auburn University, the University of Toronto, and Harvard University. His projects and essays have appeared in several books and journals, including The New York Times Magazine, Metropolis, The Architect's Newspaper, Architectural Record, Crain's, The New York Daily News, Art Papers, The Believer, and New Directions in Sustainable Design.
Categories
Our selection
