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The Museum of Modern Art and P.S.1 Contemporary
Art Center present an installation in P.S.1's outdoor courtyard
by Los Angeles-based firm Ball-Nogues, led by Benjamin Ball
and Gaston Nogues, winner of the eighth annual MoMA/P.S.1
Young Architects Program. The competition invites emerging
architects to propose an installation for the courtyard of
P.S.1 in Long Island City, Queens. The objective of the Young
Architects Program is to identify and provide an outlet for
emerging young talent in architecture, an ongoing mission
of both MoMA and P.S.1. This year, five finalists selected
by a closed nomination process were asked to present designs
for an installation at P.S.1.
The winning installation, Liquid Sky,
designed by Ball-Nogues (Los Angeles), will be on view in
the P.S.1 courtyard beginning June 21. Liquid Sky
will immerse the viewer in kaleidoscopic patterns of color
created by sunlight filtering through an array of translucent,
tinted Mylar petals that resemble blossoming flowers of stained
glass. Together, the petals form a tensioned matrix that
reconfigures the horizon, cresting above the walls of the
P.S.1 courtyard. Six towers constructed from untreated utility
poles support the array of petals while providing discrete spaces
at their base for relaxing on enormous community hammocks
made of brightly colored netting. For the adjacent outdoor
gallery, the team has designed the Droopscape, a slack catenary
belly that shifts and flows in the wind, supported by drench
towers that periodically soak visitors below with their gravity-induced
tip buckets. The winning proposal was designed in collaboration
with Paul Endres of Endres
Ware Architects/Engineers and the Product
Architecture Lab at Stevens Institute. As in past years,
the project will serve as the venue for Warm Up, the popular
music series held annually in P.S.1's courtyard.
"Ball-Nogues's exuberant project, Liquid
Sky, combines the zest of a joyful event space with rigorous
research into new materials and digital fabrication," states
Barry Bergdoll, Philip Johnson Chief Curator of Architecture
and Design at The Museum of Modern Art. Low-tech assembly
is joined with experiment in the latest cutting and fabrication
techniques gleaned from the sailing industry. They posit a
project whose research will hold resonance and application
long after this summer's Warm Up series. Liquid Sky is a rich
palette of atmospheric effects and brilliant color with an
undertone of the ephemeral circus spectacle.
According to P.S.1 Director Alanna Heiss, "To
hear five great, young architects present their dream of a
temporary pavilion is to fall in love five times. The winner,
Ball-Nogues, from the Echo Park area of Los Angeles, gave
us a Fellini-esque project: a circus tent whose canvas has
been replaced with phosphorescent scales of hallucinogenic
colors. This astonishing but low-tech creation cannot fail
but to delight viewers of all ages."
Ball-Nogues principals, Benjamin Ball and Gaston
Nogues, describe the experience of their installation: "When
you step into Liquid Sky, you've set your mind and body free
from the weight of the urban environment and are submerged
into an atmosphere of soothing exhilaration, subtle stimulation,
and inspirational calm. As the installation changes from day-to-day,
even hour-to-hour, your expectations create your own unique
experience."
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