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TOGS
Temporary Outdoor Gallery Space Austin, Texas in collaboration with Brian D. Andrews |
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The idea of a temporary outdoor gallery space [togs] is predicated upon four key ides: [1] the modular and affordable fabrication of a unit that can be effectively delivered to the site and be “unpacked” to expand its space upon arrival; [2] to provide a hyper flexibility through an operable object: to flip, fold, slide and shift its surface planes to allow for diverse occupations and usages by the individual curators and artists, maximizing diversity within a single entity; [3] the double ability for the unit to be fabricated as a 10’x10’ unit or a 10’x20’ unit with consistency and similar flexibility; and [4] the ability for the aggregation of repetitive unit to produce an urban system of extended courtyards, service alleys and arcades.
The elements of the temporary outdoor gallery space include an oversized canvas canopy; a primary welded steel structural cage; a series of flexible and expanding walls [that fold, slide, flip and shift] lined with inner surfaces for display and outer surface for super graphics establishing, boundary, signage, a navigational infrastructure and the potential for overflow display; a storage wall that contains a securable storage cabinet, a retractable counter, and a pass-thru window; and a wood plinth that articulates a threshold between inside and out. The entire unit is rested upon a field of self-leveling and lockable casters providing for easy movement and adaptation of the unit within its context and collective configuration.
The systems works as a closed and open entity. When closed, the unit is a 10’x10’x9’ volume. The canopy has four corner lockable pipes that pivot back onto the unit to allow the canvas canopy to collapse and pack within. The box, [with a secured chain-link roof] then slides its nested halves apart longitudinally to produce a 10’x20’ unit. Here the longitudinal walls fully flip open with double swinging panels, or slide longitudinally with a massive roller wall. The result is an expansion of the perimeter to allow a diffused boundary of the togs and its surrounding. The expansive field allows for a porous gallery with expansive arms embracing the street, the public and the artwork. The unit can unpack and repack as necessary to provide the flexibility of spatial configuration and the overnight security programmatically necessary.
The unit as an assembly of collected parts can be disassembled and reused. Its sustainability comes through the temporary deployment of its materials and the efficiency of its structure.
Thus the togs is a hyper flexible unit allowing for a maximization of the minimum: a flexible organism, adaptable and responsive. It responds to the process of fabrication and installation, the site, the art, the curator and the user to produce a temporary outdoor gallery space. |
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