Design Studio, 2008 | UNSW, Australia.
Exhibition: Bachelor of Interior Architecture Winter Exhibition 2008
THE EXPERIMENTAL ART FOUNDATION (EAF) GALLERY
THE EAF GALLERY is a Sydney-based gallery and workshop for the EAF, a controversial and quirky group of Australian artists. Their book ‘A Decade at the E.A.F.: A History of the Experimental Art Foundation 1974 – 1984’ opens with a concise four-point philosophy of the EAF:
“1. Our apprehension of the world is active, not passive, and art displays an emergent apprehension. 2. Art is only incidentally and not essentially aesthetic. Art is concerned with every kind of value and not particularly with beauty. 3. Art interrogates the status quo; it is essentially, and not incidentally, radical. 4. Art is experimental action: it models possible forms of life and makes them available to public criticism.”
The oxymoron ‘emergent apprehension’ talks about the convergence of two contradicting and contrasting ideas and it this fusing of opposites and exploration of the tension which exists in between both elements that is one of the defining characteristics of the EAF. The EAF’s aim to create ‘dialogue’ to provoke progressive thought also underlines all their creative efforts.
Based on those statements, I aimed to design a space that would not merely house art but a space that would facilitate the conversation between artist and audience – one that would blur the lines between process and product and provide an open platform for expression, debate and creative energy.
The space is divided into 5 levels (including a basement and a rooftop level) that interweave to form a 3-dimensional hierarchy of space that naturally propels one through the building. Elegant ramps connect the main levels further adding to the fluidity of the space. Artist’s studios and workshops are left physically open but visually ‘framed’ to create the illusion of a ‘working gallery’ where the nuts and bolts of the elusive artistic processes are laid bare for all to see. Likewise, gallery visitors unknowingly pass through visual ‘frames’ in the space and are transformed into moving art – What is art? Who is the spectator? In this way, the EAF Gallery brings its visitors one step closer to having an intimate encounter with creativity.