project statement
The sculpture project entitled Portable City proposes liaisons between textiles and the built environment. Comprised of a horizontal field of 47 mobile vitrines, each vitrine houses a structure of thread or wire filament under tension, suspension, compression, or collapse. Elements of ancient handwork participate in new thinking about the viability of lightweight mesh structures to create temporary and portable architectures. A city is imagined of tensile networks, deflated domes, skeletal igloos, flattened tents, elevated canopies, schematic cooling towers, linear pathways, rubble from collapse, stacks and parts to rebuild. The overall field suggests a macrocosm of detailed worlds of connections where ideas and implications emerge of both usefulness and disjunction.
The first presentation of this project was in a solo exhibition at the Rhona Hoffman Gallery, Chicago, January 25 – March 1, 2008.
The second presentation of this project was in a solo exhibition at Paul Kotula Projects, Detroit, November 2, 2009 – January 9, 2010.
https://www.paulkotulaprojects.com
project specs
Download Project Specs in pdf format.