LAWRENCE WALLEN
Lawrence Wallen, Detail, Co-located structures (2017), Charcoal Tempera on Paper, 598cm x 63cm. From the exhibition Travellers from Australia, exhibited at the Pailia Ilektriki, Ktima Pafos, Cyprus, 2-15 October, as part of the official program of the Pafos2017 European Capital of Culture. Photo: Shelley Webster, 2017.
Artist Statement
Through my recent research, and its fragile representations, I propose the possibility of comprehending the relationship between material landscapes and the immaterial and invisible spiritual, psychological and intellectual landscapes created through the artist’s gaze. This desired conjunction forms the conceptual and visual basis of my recent work, arguing that the particular and unique alignment of material and immaterial landscapes form a sequence of dual spaces.
Visiting the ancient Hellenistic-Roman theatre of Neo Paphos with Diana Wood Conroy in 2011 provoked a realisation that the archaeological site made time visible through the very physical quality of the layers in a way that no other landscape did. This notion was further supported by the strict methods of categorisation and the criticality of context in providing meaning to the found objects. As I observed the site over some weeks it became evident that this location, and the operations being performed upon it, was less about place and very much about time.
In creating art works based on specific historical sites, as part of an ongoing series of drawings and installations, I utilise a strategy of revealing these places out of their original time and location. The resultant artistic works function as a reflection of the original spaces and their relationship with a built or imagined double that in turn has the potential to be experienced as a spatial doppelgänger when understood from the perspective of site rather than subject.
In order to clarify this idea I offer the example of the Santa Maria dei Miracoli (completed in1675) and Santa Maria di Montesanto (completed in 1681) on Piazza del Popolo in Rome as an example of a spatial doppelgänger were it is clear from the perspective of site that the architectural objects are doubled. While the twin churches serve to illustrate the principle, further research on the spatial doppelgänger has suggested to me that dual spaces are rarely identical twins but are more likely to be realised across several sites, in diverse scales or temporalities.
Standing in the theatre in Neo Paphos I experienced a sensation of derealisation finding myself simultaneously in the ruined Hellenistic-Roman theatre as it presented itself before me, and in the lost theatres that had been built before on this site. My perception of these co-located structures existing in the same place across different temporalities lead me to identify this theatre as a spatial doppelgänger from the perspective of time rather than site.
Referring to the theatre’s ability to make worlds and the theatrical layers that make up the site - the exhibition landscape layer time investigates the notion of the spatial doppelgänger as it applies to the identified theatres in Neo Paphos across time. Comprising of large drawings and small models the installation becomes and refers to a temporal landscape.
Prof. Lawrence Wallen, June 2017.
Biography
Lawrence Wallen’s practise operates across various modes employing scenographic strategies and performative readings, resulting in an extensive collection of Spaces, Books, Drawings, Performances and Architectures.
Recent publications include The Model as Performance. Staging Space in Theatre and Architecture, Bloomsbury (2018), Model & Fragment - on the performance of incomplete architectures in Architectural Design (AD) (2021) (co-authored with Brejzek) and on the reconstruction of landscape in the Leonardo Journal (2020).
Recent exhibitions in Italy (2020), Vilnius (2019), France (2019), and Cairo (2016) operate in dialogue with and underpin his academic writing. Lawrence has studied Fine Arts in Vienna, Architecture in Melbourne and holds a DCA from the University of Wollongong. He is currently a Professor in the School of Architecture, the University of Technology Sydney, before which he was a Professor at the University of the Arts Zurich (2002 - 2012). His current research is on the architectural fragment.
contact - info@lawrencewallen.com