From: Stephen Lauf
To: design-l@lists.psu.edu
Subject: Re: piano, koolhaas, serra
Date: 2002.08.31 11:52
It's worth noting that everything Serra said (for at least five minutes) about play(ing and the creation of art) is likewise to be found in Johan Huizinga's Homo Ludens: a study of the play element in culture, especially chapter one.
The only time I every 'interacted' with a large Serra work was in 1992 at Gagosian Gallery in Soho. Experiencing the piece(s) inside is indeed worth it--one more acutely realizes the scale of the works via contrast of the piece and its container. [So a lot of Serra's sculpture is off the pedestal but now more (just) in a container?] I chatted with Peter Reed (an architecture and design curator at MoMA) at a birthday party at Ron Evitts' Philadelphia place a few months afterwards. He told me MoMA had purchased the work. I quickly asked Peter if he knew what MoMA had paid for the work--I always ask for the price-list when I'm in a NY art gallery. Peter answered no. I told him it was listed for $1.2 million.
[In a little game I sometimes played, after looking over any given exhibit price-list, I'd ask the gallery rep if they had a favorite piece. Invariably, they would point to the most expensive 'item'.]
The next time I encounter a Serra work I hope it's in a museum or a gallery, and I hope it's one of the spirals with an inner open space. Once I'm in the inner space and see that no one else is in the space, nor that anyone else is then also interacting with the work, I'm going to feign a panic attack. I'm going to start screaming as loud as I can that I am feeling fatally disoriented and that I have to close my eyes and lie on the floor, and that someone should come get me, but please approach me slowly, and lead me out of the sculpture because I have keep my eyes closed so not to throw up. Plus I really, really have to suddenly urinate! "So please hurry, but don't rush and startle me." Then I'll start counting out loud in German or something. [Being very close to a schizophrenic brother does have some benefits.]
Two nights after seeing Koolhaas on Rose, I read an interview of Elias Zenghelis and Eleni Gigantes in Customize: Review of Peripheral Architecture. [Zenghelis co-founded OMA with Koolhaas, and Gigantes presented a paper after I did at Inside Density in 1999 (and I had Thanksgiving dinner with them at their Brussels apartment two night afterwards).] In the interview (conducted 21 May 2001) they candidly, and even with some embarrassment, admit to having no work. They also candidly speak of Koolhaas. And they really don't like all the architecture and theory the young architects of Europe are now practicing. I was reminded of the relationship between Kahn's Yale Art Gallery and Kahn's Radbill and Pincus buildings--completely co-temporal events yet within completely different (light) wave lengths.
I'm glad I taped (recorded) the combined architect interviews on Charlie Rose. It was worth it just to henceforth occasionally see how Koolhaas' face noticeably lights up and actually begins to smile as soon as Rose brings up the subject of Prada. Even after utilizing a magnifying glass it is still inconclusive, but I'd swear that dollar signs actually flashed in Koolhaas' eyes at the very same time.
Neither Piano, Koolhaas nor Serra are on the short list for Ezeri Mester 2002. I did not anticipate having to make such a difficult decision, because I did not anticipate having a half dozen real and/or potential 'millennial masters' to choose from. I can make only one choice however.
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