Over the past forty years, architecture has increasingly grappled with notions responsibility or irresponsibility, while design has been relegated to the realm "unnecessary"—a tantalizing visual boast. Design tends to prioritize beauty and evocativeness, whereas architecture delves into the portrayal and revelation of our darker times, returning to the forcefulness of Brutalism and raw, abrasive appearances.
Flash Art Volumes: Anti-Composition is the first publication dedicated to such new (and forgotten) aesthetics.
Guest curated by architect and curator Luigi Alberto Cippini,
Anti-Composition is composed by three distinct sections: "HBC," "Cute Stalking," and "Institutions, please don't!"
The name of the first sections, "HBC," comes from Herschel B. Chippis' Theories of Modern Art, a sort of monolithic and ancient source book made the perfect case on how informal notes could be factored in the critical understanding of art shifts. "HBC" examines the informal aspects of artistic expression beyond antiquated theories, featuring discussions with established, current, and emerging artist:
Michael E. Smith in conversation with Luigi Alberto Cippini;
Peter Fischli by Hugo Buasch Belbachir; and Paride Maria Calvia in conversation with Clem MacLeod. "HBC" also includes a visual essay by
Anne Imhof, realized in her Berlin house.
"Cute stalking" gathers together buildings and practices significant for Cippini's personal upbringing as an architect: Bruce Graham Residence in Chicago, discussed by Marie Stargala and Matthew Rosen; the personal made into a lame modernist Kunsthalle—John Winter House in London, analyzed by Eliot Haworth; the spookiest, kindest anti-detail ever accomplished—Yukio Mishima own villa in Tokyo, described by Sebastian Clark; a set for extremes built by baroque and mannerist droning—Michael Hopkins House in Hampstead, explored by Achille Filipponi and X_Ref; and the lightest Hi-Tech murder-scene villa and COOPHIMMELB(L)AU's D3 House a platform for paparazzi, hoodies and junk food, dissected in a conversation between Wolf dPrix and Elias Buyssy.
As the name might suggest, "Institution, please don't!" ventures into the world of American institutions, from museums to schools. Michael Abel and Nile Greenberg discuss The Metropolitan Museum in New York, focusing on Kevin Roche's radical, clinical, brutal, and board-savvy architectural design. Janelle Zara examines the SCAD Museum of Art in Savannah, highlighting its integration of commercial values and architecture within the art world. Manga Ngcobo and Sam Harding talk to SCI-Arc students Ari Diamond, William Madsen, Reed Donaldson, and Maria Kuraeva about the Los Angeles school that used to be progressive and a hub for bad-boys, and that is now a stable infrastructure for geometric convolution and environmental concerns, and that is to them a critical point of departure in question what experimental architecture is today.
Also in this issue Bad Works, a special project conceived by Armature Globale for the issue; and a special essay by Octave Perrault on Bottega Veneta's new project inspired by
Le Corbusier for Milan Design Week.
This issue comes with six different covers, randomly distributed.
A yearly publication by
Flash Art,
Flash Art Volumes tackles issues of
design,
architecture and
art publications at large, placing itself as a new zero degree, using economics, theoretical analysis, and
market to re define conteaships and positioning itself as a value carrier, defining waves of attention and setting a new tone: amplification.
Volumes is split and organised in five sections, finve channels of distribution opting to fully describe and channel pressing themes.
Sources looks at large scale examples that paved the way for a different approach and are still great examples of the unrefined process of defining contemporary aesthetics. Sources is the main content provider of
Volumes, using worldwide amplification of building resources and merging brand production for the creation of editorial-breaking content.
Stocks merges economic analysis and auction esthetics to provide a market-waving portrait of current design and gallery trends.
Streams is a portrait of hybrid calibers, merging native content, art, and avant-garde photography.
Intelligence brings into the discussion external factors bridging design and art with industrial production aiming for a new full resolution on creative issues.
Amp consists of re-printed and unseen archival documentation and working files by great designers as raw files.
