Colony
Letters by Gordon Matta-Clark
New commission by Andrew T Cross / an-architecture
Daily activities by Colony Network
14 Warren Street, Fitzrovia, W1T 5LJ
5th – 20 December 2013
Opening event Wednesday 4th December 6pm, with performance by Cheatahs
THIS IS TOMORROW REVIEW OF COLONY
Photo Credit: Jim Stephenson
After a successful residence for over a year in Deptford, anarch is roaming and will be occupied the former lighting showroom and basement at 14 Warren Street for Colony.
Photo Credit: Jim Stephenson
Colony is an artist-run temporary takeover of this former lighting showroom, led by Anarch. The new architectural scale commission by artist Andrew T Cross / AN-architecture is made from reclaimed joists from a demolition site of a derelict convent, foraged days before the exhibition. Andrew designed his sculpture to react to the existing space with the positive principle of interactivity.
‘I want to create a platform that can be inhabited – taking the shell of the building and creating within it another separate structure which artists, as they come and go, can do with it as they please. I wanted to try and challenge the way people think about how they interact with the space. You can design or build something with a very precise thought in mind, but people are such incredible creatures they’ll do what they want anyway. So it’s building something that in some ways has no real function.’ Andrew T Cross
Photo Credit: Samantha Taylor
Colony is a node in the city where a temporary community, Colony Network, gather together to create a dynamic, chaotic and experimental programme on, in and around the ‘functional’ installation.
Photo Credit: Vikki Chapman
Colony adopts the spirit of the artist Gordon Matta-Clark who is widely considered one of the most influential artists working in the 1970s. A small selection of his personal letters that were on display were fundamental to the ideas behind Colony. Andrew T Cross is an artist who works with similar materials and motivations as Matta-Clark and through his practice he expands them with a welcoming aspiration for others to fully use his artwork how they see fit.
Special thanks to the Estate of Matta-Clark (held at CCA , Montreal).
The letters are reminders of the character, determination, sense of humour and collaborative, forward-thinking method of working that motivates Colony.
Colony Networks hosted daily events employing the structure variously as studio, social space, garden, cinema, performance platform, artist-run restaurant …
See Colony Network
Photo Credit: Vikki Chapman
Images of showroom and basement, 14 Warren St, ‘meanwhile use’ by East Street Arts (In spring 2014 bought over by a well known global chain cafe owned by an even more well known chain. Great while it lasted, thanks East Street Arts)
