PORTABLE

Storefront for Art and Architecture

Curated by Yasmeen M. Siddiqui



 

​Ganjian, Holleman, and Sauvaitre use the languages of sculpture, installation, and landscape photography to represent points of intersection, where landscapes (urban and rural) and nomadic architctures meet. Ganjian builds utopian cities on jewel case-like velvet pedestals and carpets. Ganjian's carpets are inspired by icons from her childhood, the urban landscape surrounding her studio in Long Island City, and American popular culture. Holleman builds a living park within a generic trailer. For Trailer Park: A Mobile Public Park, Holleman appropriates forms of public architecture and science to reveal and interrogate their ideal promises. She responds to investigations into 1960s utopian and research architecture, and utilitarian/utopian models, and makes a statement about current cultural conditions. Sauvaitre 's landscape photography represents portable architectures of the Bedouins in Wadi Rum (Jordan), the same Bedouins across the border in the Negev (Israel), the marginal trailer "snow birds" of Slab City (USA) and trailers found in the Catskills (USA), as well as the last gypsies of Camargue (France). Nomadic versus sedentary – this relationship is ancient, and yet remains relevant. PORTABLE proposes that we reconsider the term nomad, and how it operates in contemporary society.