"Length x Width x Height: A Site-specific Installation by David Adjaye"
2004-09-15 until 2004-10-24
Institute of International Visual Arts
London, , UK

The Institute of International Visual Arts (inIVA) will showcase a unique site-specific installation by David Adjaye Length x Width x Height running from 15 September - 24 October 2004. David Adjaye invites visitors on a journey through space and light to explore and experience the most basic elements of architecture, scale and measurement, the very length x width x height. Building on previous collaborative projects with artists Chris Ofili and Faisal Abdu‚Allah and his celebrated Asymmetric Chamber (Cube, Manchester 2003) this new project by Adjaye takes the idea of architecture as sculpture onto a large scale.

The installation is unique in that it physically maps the full length of an actual space to be built on. Adjaye uses materials playfully, working with light and space as well as reclaimed waste materials from the building industry, that are usually left hidden from the public gaze. Visitors‚ experience of the space stretches beyond the tangible aspects of construction, and the physical and aesthetic elements of a building to the more spiritual and emotional, as they are encouraged to embark on a journey of their own.

Placing the work on a site yet to be built on, allows visitors and the local community to reflect upon the nature and processes of building, the location of the site, its stories, the memories of previous occupants, and the vision the new building may offer for the future. The site itself has had a rich history of journeys, and communities making homes in the area, from the Huguenots in the seventeenth century, to the Bengali, Bangladeshi, and Somalian communities more recently.

The installation takes on an added dimension as an art work for an architectural project in progress, as David Adjaye has been commissioned to develop a permanent home for culturally diverse visual arts on the site of this installation, in London‚s thriving arts hub Shoreditch. This will be the first new public funded contemporary multi-purpose visual arts space to be built in London for forty years, and will house inIVA and Autograph. This project is supported by Romag and Arts Council England.

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