"Bodybuildings" was a solo show by Diller + Scofidio, presented by Storefront of Art and Architecture in 1987. The exhibition explored issues of structure and instrumentality in relation with human body.
Architectural Facts and Fictions
From September 10 to October 2, 1987, Storefront for Art and Architecture housed a solo exhibition of architectural facts and fictions, entitled "Bodybuildings."
Bodybuildings: Exhibition Photos (1987-09-10/1987-10-02) by Elizabeth Diller and Ricardo ScofidioStorefront for Art and Architecture Archive
Architecture works in theaters, installations, objects and design from the collaborative studio of Elizabeth Diller and Ricardo Scofidio were presented in this show. The exhibition contained 8 photo/drawings, a television installation, a costume, slide lamps, and two models from different projects done by their studio.
Bodybuildings: Exhibition Photos (1987-09-10/1987-10-02) by Elizabeth Diller and Ricardo ScofidioStorefront for Art and Architecture Archive
Bodybuildings: Exhibition Photos (1987-09-10/1987-10-02) by Elizabeth Diller and Ricardo ScofidioStorefront for Art and Architecture Archive
1. Entry Gate
"The interface between Manhattan and landfill, at Art on the Beach, is defined by the gatekeepers through two apertures; One containing a ledger, the other, a glass window bisecting bowl."
2. The Window: Urban, Suburban, Rural
3. The withDrawing Room: Versions and Subversions
the withDrawing Room (1987) by Elizabeth Diller and Ricardo ScofidioStorefront for Art and Architecture Archive
"the withDrawing room: a probe into the conventions of private rite
The installation designates a 'domestic field' in the interval between the skin of the house and the skin of the body. Within that field, the irreducible domestic unit the resident, engages a series of architectural episodes, progressively private in nature. The first, confronts the issue of the property line, of legal and moral limits. A second, involves etiquette a correct order. A third, addresses the condition of intimacy and the last examines the narcissistic impulse."
- from "Front1: Bodybuildings"
4. The American Mysteries
"The set was designed for "The American Mysteries", a play by Mathew McGuire. The Plot resembles American 1940's genre detective stories while the structure of the play evokes the ancient Greek Mysteries."
The American Mysteries (1987) by Elizabeth Diller and Ricardo ScofidioStorefront for Art and Architecture Archive
The American Mysteries: Installation Photo (1987-09-10) by Elizabeth Diller and Ricardo ScofidioStorefront for Art and Architecture Archive
"The American Mysteries is a formalist collage of the American detective thriller and the ancient Greek mysteries. The play consists of three musical parts, each with three acts…
The set is and apparatus which mutates into 9 discrete configurations, according to the 9 sites of the text. The panels of a cube are hinged and engaged with a pulley-and-counterweight system manipulated by the characters during the transitions between the 9 seamless acts."
- From AA Files 14
5. Bridge
Bridge - Arlequino: Scene 6/Lazzi #2 (1986) by Elizabeth Diller and Ricardo ScofidioStorefront for Art and Architecture Archive
"Bridge: a probe into the aesthetics of danger
The center of a bridge is a Jannsian moment: a location that is no longer here but not yet there. Each of two discrete cantilever units has eight components. Four cables are tensioned to compress four rigid members against the Anchorage walls, using no mechanical connections into the masonry. A gap between the two structures can only be spanned by the body. The bridge is consummated, momentarily by the human side."
- from "Front1: Bodybuildings"
6. Plywood House
"The Plywood House, built on an existing foundation, replaces the house that burned to the ground. A budget of $45,000 was based on the settlement received from fire insurance coverage. The wood frame construction is sheathed with 4'X8' stained plywood panels which are precut to receive stock windows. The facade is the result of meeting between a non-specific serial strategy on its exterior surface and specific programmatic demands on its interior surface."
7. A Delay in Glass
The Rotary Notary and His Hot Plate by Elizabeth Diller and Ricardo ScofidioStorefront for Art and Architecture Archive
"A Delay in Glass: a probe into instability of gender
Ignited by Duchamp’s Large Glass, the theater work is a circuitous anti-narrative; its objective is irreconcilability—between male and female, between image and word. The set takes on as its program the formula “a/b to isolate the sign of the accordance”, from the notes the Green Box."
- from "Front 1: Bodybuildings"
Bodybuildings: Exhibition Photos (1987-09-10/1987-10-02) by Elizabeth Diller and Ricardo ScofidioStorefront for Art and Architecture Archive
"The bride is a physical specimen.
She's exoskeletal.
Her anatomy is a hinge.
She wears chastity armour with a modesty mechanism.
She wears a rotating bride widow's evil."
- From AA Files 14.
Front 1
Kyong Park and Lebbuss Woods planned to work on institutional publications to catalog exhibitions and projects of Storefront. The first issue of this compendium called "Front" was published in conjunction with Bodybuildings exhibition in 1987.
Credits Page from Front1 (1987) by Storefront for Art and ArchitectureStorefront for Art and Architecture Archive
To see this publication visit Bodybuildings: architectural facts and fictions.
- For more information about Bodybuildings, please visit:
- Storefront for Art and Architecture Webpage
- Bodybuidings on Internet Archive
- Front 1 Publication
This Google Arts and Culture exhibit is curated by Farnoosh Farmer.
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