Forerunner, Architecture of Change (2018), VOID, Derry, curated by Mary Cremin. Image: Paola Bernadelli
In Architecture of Change a large pyramidal structure was built in the centre of the room that closely resembled a roof. This exhibition drew on a dream that described the pyramids of Giza as giant roofs which hid the bodies of bungalows they were attached to in the sand. Exploring the change in the appreciation of architecture and the permanence of buildings was a central theme to this exhibition. By presenting bags of concrete that had turned themselves to stone alongside plywood and pine ‘sets’ a certain attention to the material permanence inherent in the mediums used became explicit. From ceramic models that appropriated local sites to painted surfaces that mimicked the weather worn and older materials; the works in this exhibition all pointed towards the visual distress left by time on material objects and sought to allow a certain appreciation of it. Initially billed as a collaborative museum show, the larger sculptures (Hill & Whale) were constructed in reaction to the artefacts placed around the room. Paintings that were both air and stone, plywood and rocks, sky and sand and ceramic models that depicted changed and redesigned local landmarks. filled the walls. These cultural artefacts set the tone for the larger constructions and all the works in this exhibition mimicked or manifested a certain attachment to permanence. A large circular window was cut through the gallery wall, again a nod to the impermanence of the exhibition space.