STEVEN BROWER

EXHIBITION PROGRAM 1999

August 20 – September 26, 1999
 


Steven Brower, Secession, 1999

 
Steven Brower (born in 1969 in Washington D.C.) builds architectural models that are imbued with ironic and skeptical overtones by their extremely diminutive scale and - at times - by their choice of materials. This is apparent, for instance, in Brower's replica of Frank Lloyd Wright's Robie House: the fact that it is actually made of Domino pizza boxes points to the pizza tycoon's passion for the works of Wright. The artist was able to realize "Utility" in the Lombard Fried Gallery in New York, where his architectural models were connected to the gallery's power supply and installation networks to indicate the fact that the gallery was not an autonomous space, but dependent on a complex interplay of electrical, hydraulic, social and other systems.
 


Steven Brower, Secession, 1999


The works in the Secession also include a concrete reference to the presentational framework itself and were developed from the building's architecture. The artist was intrigued by the hidden spaces located behind the numerous white doors throughout the exhibition building that remained inaccessible to the public. He constructed miniature models of seven of these (ranging from the broom closet to the space behind the Klimt Frieze) to a scale of 1:50 and placed them in the exhibition hall in front of the doors that allowed entry to the corresponding spaces. They are presented on plinths in the form of a Greek cross representing the layout of the Secession itself, with the exact location of the spaces marked on the plan. Brower also connected the hidden spaces with the aid of a fictitious itinerary that draws stations from the Secession's history into a narrative web. Each architectural model is accompanied by a passage of text which extrapolates on the reconstructed - but nevertheless still hidden - spaces by trying to impart their individual characteristics in linguistic form.
 
 
PUBLICATION

STEVEN BROWER authors: Steven Brower, Matthias Herrmann bilingual, Secession 1999 ___________________ available in the shop

URS FREI   KENDELL GEERS   ANNIKA STRÖM

EXHIBITION PROGRAM 1999

For further information and photographic material please contact:
 
Urte Schmitt-Ulms
Secession, Association of Visual Artists Vienna Secession
Friedrichstraße 12, 1010 Vienna
Tel: +43-1-5875307-21, Fax: +43-1-5875307-34
presse@secession.at