Robert Longyear - Sharing Skin
SHARING SKIN
We have preconceived ideas about a structure protecting us, and when choruses of unoccupied buildings no longer protect us, it raises all sorts of issues.
St. Louis is truly in a state of entropy. My work helps me to address critically the fate of our neighborhoods, which are presently filled with unoccupied structures, abandoned warehouses, idle factories, and empty lots. My experiences have been open-ended, complex, and suggest that the fate of our neighborhoods is malleable.
I have recently relocated my studio to a vacant warehouse in Baden, MO. The space was evacuated by Triangle Plastics Inc. in 2003, and has sat unattended since. In its current state, the space is filled with the material / technology the manufacturer used for the production of promotional key chains. We all leave a layer of skin on our buildings, and as an artist I am sharing skin with the idiosyncrasies / history of the industrial activity, the working class citizens who carried out the production, and the larger community in which they lived.
I’m drawn to buildings as metaphor for system breakdowns – and as opportunities to learn more about how humans interface with the world through architecture. I use neglected structures as my raw material. In this way, I am able to reveal their hidden construction, provide new ways of perceiving space, and create metaphors for the human condition.
In my current work I represent and reinterpret this relationship, offering audiences new ways to think about architecture while inciting questions concerning the social, political, and geographical circumstances that give architecture its meaning.
We have preconceived ideas about a structure protecting us, and when choruses of unoccupied buildings no longer protect us, it raises all sorts of issues.
St. Louis is truly in a state of entropy. My work helps me to address critically the fate of our neighborhoods, which are presently filled with unoccupied structures, abandoned warehouses, idle factories, and empty lots. My experiences have been open-ended, complex, and suggest that the fate of our neighborhoods is malleable.
I have recently relocated my studio to a vacant warehouse in Baden, MO. The space was evacuated by Triangle Plastics Inc. in 2003, and has sat unattended since. In its current state, the space is filled with the material / technology the manufacturer used for the production of promotional key chains. We all leave a layer of skin on our buildings, and as an artist I am sharing skin with the idiosyncrasies / history of the industrial activity, the working class citizens who carried out the production, and the larger community in which they lived.
I’m drawn to buildings as metaphor for system breakdowns – and as opportunities to learn more about how humans interface with the world through architecture. I use neglected structures as my raw material. In this way, I am able to reveal their hidden construction, provide new ways of perceiving space, and create metaphors for the human condition.
In my current work I represent and reinterpret this relationship, offering audiences new ways to think about architecture while inciting questions concerning the social, political, and geographical circumstances that give architecture its meaning.