From February 20 to April 11, 2020, The UQAM Centre du Design (Montreal) will be presenting Concrete in All its Forms, an exhibition of the drawings and fabric-formed constructions of artist and architect Mark West.
Through a series of surrealist drawings and constructions, Mark West proposes methods for casting a new language of architectural and structural form, including flexible moulds for columns, walls, beams, slabs, and compression shells, for both pre-cast and in-situ construction.
The constructions are biomimetic in nature, using the mould’s flexibility to follow more efficient, naturally curved, structural force-paths. This results in highly efficient structural forms with complex curvatures of stunning natural beauty.
This exhibition tells a story about the intelligence of matter and its own spontaneous eruption into form that produces a complex beauty through simple and primitive means. It also suggests techniques for finding the unexpected in ordinary materials like concrete. The scope of the work also demonstrates how creations in disparate scales, modes and materials can inform each other. This intertwined series of subtle and unforeseen prototypes will be of particular interest to passionate makers, struggling with the confines of habit.
Concrete in All its Forms retraces the evolution of Mark West’s work from its earliest steps in surrealist paper collages, through his invention of "automatic" drawing techniques. These drawing and collage practices are fundamental to the discovery of ideas relevant to construction, architecture, and structural design.
