The Edge of the Practice

The Edge of the Practice, shown in the Third Floor Hallway Gallery in the Foundation Building, is an exhibition by the Office of Adrian Phiffer. The exhibition is divided into three parts: a book, a film, and a competition submission. Phiffer describes the interaction of the three works as “an atlas of fragments that represent the work of the Office of Adrian Phiffer at the fringes of the traditional practice of architecture.” The exhibition overall was an exciting experience and was accompanied by a talk given by Phiffer on February 5th.

The book, titled Strange Primitivism, can be entered at any point in its non-narrative. The first panel in the gallery is wallpapered by the pages of the book and becomes an atlas of its own. The second panel delves further into the book and shows cover tests by Haller Brun, the book’s graphic designer. These tests notably situate Phiffer in the presence of Salvador Dali and Andy Warhol.

Hero of Generic Architecture is a film that is hard to dissect. It comes in five parts that explore similar idols of the generic. The film is exciting, using animated printmaking, digital rendering, plaster model-making, collage, and a plaster stop-motion animated Rhino interface to locate its hero.

The competition submission is a proposal for an installation in the Gay Village in Montreal: a one kilometer- long airtight cylinder made of clear ETFE suspended above the road. The cylinder’s isolated air chamber creates variability in position as temperature fluctuations affect its buoyancy. This makes the installation reactive to the seasons and weather. It acts as an independent organism as it floats above Montreal’s queer neighborhood, asking compelling questions about what is inside and outside, as well as questions of scale and form.