JANE PICKERSGILL

Art and Architecture a Space Between 

Jane Rendell (2006)

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Rendell is an interdisciplinary architect, teacher, critic and theorist. Her research covers geography, anthropology and cultural studies. She proposes studying intersections of art and architecture using a mixture of these disciplines and, through ideas developed in earlier published articles, calls this approach ‘critical spatial practice’.

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Her starting point is that the main differences between art and architecture are often stated in terms of ‘function’. The former is not functional in traditional terms, that is in giving shelter, or other facility to enable us to perform activities as architecture does. However, she asserts that art can be a tool for self-reflection and critical thinking which may lead to social change.  Architecture can rarely be said to have ’no function’ nor does it consider the construction of critical concepts a component of practice.

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The book is organised into 3 sections; referencing concepts originating with philosopher Levebvre (H.) and urban theorist and geographer Soja (E.)  

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•  Between Here and There focuses on the spatial – dealing with definitions of site, place and space; commissioning work outside galleries.  See Krauss (R.) ‘Sculpture in the Expanded Field’ (1979). Smithson and Heizer are early exponents of this development whilst Landy is a later example.

 

• Between Now and Then  highlights the temporal dimension, exploring  specific works montaged into unfamiliar contexts. Duchamp’s urinal is an early example of this whilst Whiteread and Libeskind are also analysed. 

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• Between One and Another deals in the social; relationships and exchanges taking place in the performative sphere. These include walking and community collaboration. The work of muf falls into this category as does Beuys, Long and the art activists Platform.

 

Through critiquing an array of solo and collaborative projects Rendell concludes that although boundaries between disciplines have not been totally broken down they are diminished. Conceptual art (in particular) has forced the need for all practitioners to be more self-aware and to ask; what  are we doing and how are we doing it?   

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