Pattern Languages: Artists and Architectural Grammar
At MACAS (Mount Airy Contemporary Artists Space)
September 15th - October 20th Opening Reception Saturday September 15th 6-9 PM Gallery Hours by appointment: (267) 270-2787 info@mountairycontemporary.com
Robert Walden Joseph Burwell Leslie Mutchler Amze Emmons Ross Racine Robert Hills
MACAS 25 West Mt Airy Avenue, mind Philadelphia PA (267) 270-2787
A Pattern Language is a seminal 1977 treatise on architecture and habitation that was influenced by the rise of programming languages, fractal logic (the idea that patterns persist across scales), and a sense that architecture - and art - are essentially human enterprises. A Pattern Language has been recognized as influential in architecture and in software design - the phrase "design pattern” is a descendent of the core concepts the book outlines.
But there is also an artistic practice that is fundamentally interested in the idea that human habitation and human works are a touchstone - that built environments, the places we live, the things we make, say something about what it means to be people.
The artists in this exhibition share a common fascination in and celebration of the built grammar of our lives - the syntax of roadways, the haiku of space platforms, the syncopation of tent cities, the cursive recumbence of suburban tracts, and even the intricate plumbing of the isometric view.
There is a love for what people make, how they live, and how they move through the world that suffuses the work by these six artists. MACAS is extremely pleased to have the opportunity to present this exhibit.