assemble and the turner
TRANSCRIPT
8/18/2019 Assemble and the Turner
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/assemble-and-the-turner 1/7
30/03/2016 17:05Turner Prize 2015: London architecture collective Assemble nomina…... but is it art? | Design | Lifestyle | London Evening Standard
Page 1 of 7http://www.standard.co.uk/lifestyle/design/turner-prize-2015-londo…itecture-collective-assemble-nominated-but-is-it-art-a3106291.html
Collective responsibility: members of Assemble at their east London studio complex Matt Writtle
Lifestyle › Design
ROBERT BEVAN | Wednesday 4 November 2015 | 1 comment
Turner Prize 2015: London arc hit ecture collective Assemblenominated... but is it art?The London architecture collective Assemble are shortlisted for this year’s Turner Prize. So is their work art?
87shares
But is it art?” That’s too often a philistine question directed atany artwork that goes beyond the safely gurative, and achallenge often directed at the Turner Prize shortlist. Lights going on and o ff , stu ff ed animals, unmade beds: the prize’sconceptual emphasis tends to attract conservative knockers.
This year’s shortlist, on show at Glasgow’s Tramway arts centreuntil January 17 with the winner announced next month, raises the
News Football Going Out Lifestyle Sh owbiz Homes & Property87shares
8/18/2019 Assemble and the Turner
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/assemble-and-the-turner 2/7
30/03/2016 17:05Turner Prize 2015: London architecture collective Assemble nomina…... but is it art? | Design | Lifestyle | London Evening Standard
Page 2 of 7http://www.standard.co.uk/lifestyle/design/turner-prize-2015-londo…itecture-collective-assemble-nominated-but-is-it-art-a3106291.html
8/18/2019 Assemble and the Turner
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/assemble-and-the-turner 3/7
30/03/2016 17:05Turner Prize 2015: London architecture collective Assemble nomina…... but is it art? | Design | Lifestyle | London Evening Standard
Page 3 of 7http://www.standard.co.uk/lifestyle/design/turner-prize-2015-londo…itecture-collective-assemble-nominated-but-is-it-art-a3106291.html
Art group assemble working on a project
Assemble’s installation is the recreation of a terraced house withthe oors taken out. This forms a pitched-roofed double-heightspace, a survivor of the many streets of inner Liverpool erased inidiotic regeneration programmes that were ultimately halted in thecourts by campaigning locals using a community land trust model with its origins in the US Civil Rights movement.
The house is set out as a showroom for the products of the Granby Workshop, which re-create elements stripped out by the wreckers.These include: “Granby Rock” mantelpieces and lamp bases madeout of concrete that uses aggregate from building waste; stools and benches whose legs are made from black charred stair balusters (inthe manner of Dutch designer Maarten Baas); doorknobs,lightbulbs, block-printed fabrics, as well as pendant lampsmoulded from fragments of terracotta that once made up buildingcomponents such as ridge tiles.
There is a deliberate element of chance in all the processes used.Everything is for sale (see granbyworkshop.co.uk), with prots going back to Granby’s youth projects. It is both innovative andcharming — cosy even — the opposite of Kerbel, Wermer andCamplin’s understated displays.
Jackson is right about traditional disciplines breaking down — therise of the bespoke design-art piece is one example of that.Meanwhile, of the Turner shortlisted artists, Wermer has made“threshold” sculptures that are doorways to and from nowhere
SPONSORED FEATURES
England Euro 2016 squad: Six key decisions Roy Hodgsonfaces
Huge rat lmedcrawling onto sleepingcommuter on subway
England were likeArsenal on an off-day- they must be morelike Spurs
“In Joffrey Baratheon,we have the mostdespicable television
villain of all time”Don’t ignore blood inyour pee – it could saveyour life
Greece and other child-friendly Europeanholiday destinations
One to watch: Deptford
10 spring accessoryupdates
8/18/2019 Assemble and the Turner
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/assemble-and-the-turner 4/7
30/03/2016 17:05Turner Prize 2015: London architecture collective Assemble nomina…... but is it art? | Design | Lifestyle | London Evening Standard
Page 4 of 7http://www.standard.co.uk/lifestyle/design/turner-prize-2015-londo…itecture-collective-assemble-nominated-but-is-it-art-a3106291.html
while an earlier Kerbel work was a design for an interior in which you could move from room to room without casting a shadow.Unlike a house in Granby, these latter artworks remain without apractical function.
But function alone cannot be the line between architecture andart, otherwise Grayson Perry’s ceramic urns would become designinstead of art should they acquire a handle to grip. And not all
architecture is directly purposeful, as a folly in the landscapeattests (a previous Assemble project was a folly under a yover atHackney Wick). Both the art and architecture employ aestheticdecisions about composition, light, form, materials: abstract ideasrealised in space.
READ MORE
But does architecture’s primary task to serve a purpose — an
applied art with a responsibility — make it fundamentally diff erentfrom ne art? If not, why not merge the Turner Prize and theStirling Prize now?
Turner Prize judge Alistair Hudson, of the Middlesbrough Instituteof Modern Art, has an interest in the notion of the Arte Útil or“useful art”, a network with its roots in Havana and the work of artist Tanya Bruguera.
Assemble’s Lewis Jones and Fran Edgerley, who are leading on theGranby project, confess that “useful art” is a new concept to them but it relates well to the Assemble ethos of self-help, hands-on
projects with a social commitment — although Edgerley prefers thetranslation “art as a tool”. “The way we understand our work is stillthe same,” she says. “Labels are a thing to be varied as and whenappropriate.”
Lewis continues: “We don’t say ‘this is an arts project and that’s a building’. They are messy, blurry things.” Likewise, asked if theproducts of the Granby Workshop are art, craft or design, Edgerley maintains that: “they are all these things”.
Designer student pads
Brian Sewell at his best: the withering critic's nest writing
Turner Prize shortlist 2015: London art collective Assemble in the
Design trends: interior design inspired by buildings and architecture
8/18/2019 Assemble and the Turner
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/assemble-and-the-turner 5/7
30/03/2016 17:05Turner Prize 2015: London architecture collective Assemble nomina…... but is it art? | Design | Lifestyle | London Evening Standard
Page 5 of 7http://www.standard.co.uk/lifestyle/design/turner-prize-2015-londo…itecture-collective-assemble-nominated-but-is-it-art-a3106291.html
More about: | Turner Prize | Architecture | Assemble
Assemble’s upcoming London projects continue to blur the lines.These include a structure for the Art On the Undergroundprogramme at Seven Sisters station and an outdoor performancespace in Hounslow. More conventionally, work starts next year on Assemble’s art gallery building for Goldsmiths College, which is aconversion of a 19th-century bathhouse.
Jackson’s desire to claim architecture for art could suggest acreative hierarchy that places ne art as the peak, a diminishing of architecture’s own specicity — architecture for architecture’s sake— and a limited view of what architecture has always been in thehands of practices such as Assemble, who after graduating fromCambridge set up in “collective frustration” with the architect as businessman model.
Their working practices are often more similar to those of artists, with projects emerging, says Edgerley, from “constantconversations and spending a lot of time with each other”.
Although Jones and Edgerley recognise that winning the TurnerPrize would be career-changing for a gallery-based artist, the valueof whose works would escalate, they argue that it will make littlediff erence to Assemble’s income, which is based on buildingprojects. “Our work doesn’t exist within an art market,” says Jones.“For Assemble to win the Turner would be really powerful becauseit would give greater legitimacy to alternative ways of practice inthe public eye, and it would separate the art world from the artmarket. I hope we win.”
10show all
87shares
by Taboola Sponsored Links
MVMT Watches
Celebrity Mozo
cornerstone.co.uk
Clinic Compare
This Watch Brand Is Disrupting A $60 Billion Industry
19 Best Celebrity Birth Announcements Ever!
Why Thousands of Men are Switching to These Razors
Revolutionary Laser Eye Surgery Taking The UK By Storm
8/18/2019 Assemble and the Turner
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/assemble-and-the-turner 6/7
30/03/2016 17:05Turner Prize 2015: London architecture collective Assemble nomina…... but is it art? | Design | Lifestyle | London Evening Standard
Page 6 of 7http://www.standard.co.uk/lifestyle/design/turner-prize-2015-londo…itecture-collective-assemble-nominated-but-is-it-art-a3106291.html
by Taboola
1 Comment Subscribe RSS
147 days ago
COMMENTS
Log in or register to comment
BoblambananaMy favorites as they involve all around them!................ .......... Acultural historian and linguist from Senegal, Dr Cheikh Anta
The Claims Guys
My Skincare Secrets
Pound Coin Challenge: Save £7 A WeekMoney Advice Service
New Laser Eye Surgery Technology in Stoke Newington RevealedOptical Express
How HelloFresh is Changing the Way People EatHelloFresh
World’s 30 Highest Paid Musicians...And What They Make
Forbes
Want to apply for a credit card? Here’s 5 things you need to knowCapital One
New Ford Mondeo - Is It A Good Buy?Auto Express
Breaking News! PPI Deadline Day Could be Looming
Kate Middleton's Amazing Beauty Transformation
Paul O’Grady ‘banned’ from The One Show after Benets Street rant
Police hunt man after stabbing in west London
'Crowds of teenagers' ght in Brixton McDonald's
8/18/2019 Assemble and the Turner
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/assemble-and-the-turner 7/7
30/03/2016 17:05Turner Prize 2015: London architecture collective Assemble nomina…... but is it art? | Design | Lifestyle | London Evening Standard
Page 7 of 7http://www.standard.co.uk/lifestyle/design/turner-prize-2015-londo…itecture-collective-assemble-nominated-but-is-it-art-a3106291.html
Follow us:
All Topics
All Authors
Archive
Terms of use
Contact Us
Privacy policy
Cookie policy
Code of Conduct & Complaints
Advertisers
Promotion rules
Contributors
Syndication
Business Connections
Homes & Property
London Live
The Independent
This is London Magazine
iJobs
indy100
Reply Share 0 likes
Diop, was once asked 'what is the meaning of culture'? hecommented that the question should be 'What is the mission of culture"? He responded that it was about survival and creativity."Man (sic) must create to survive. To create he must ensure hissurvival. Collective historical consciousness is one of man’s chief means of survival and a source of creation. Destroy or stie itand the chances for the survival of a people becomequestionable." According to Diop in 'Civilisation or Barbarism',historical, linguistic and psychological factors make up the
collective personality (or cultural identity) of a people. Thesefactors, particularly the psychological aspects, are undergoingconstant change. The linguistic and historic aspects providecoordination of relationships