MOCA’s “New Sculpturalism” Show Back on Track; Pavilion Designers Crowdsource Support

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Patterns

After a few weeks of sturm and drang, MOCA’s “A New Sculpturalism” show is back on track, with a new opening date, announced Friday by the museum: “MOCA will present its exhibition on contemporary architecture from Southern California, A New Sculpturalism, opening June 16, 2013 at The Geffen Contemporary at MOCA as part of Pacific Standard Time Presents: Modern Architecture in L.A.  The museum is excited to bring the architecture community in Los Angeles together in recognition of the world-class architecture that has been and continues to be conceived in the city by some of the most renowned and emerging firms and practitioners working today.”

Tuesday’s DnA will feature an in-depth look at what to expect from the show. We will hear about LA’s state of “perpetual innovation” and what it means for buildings of tomorrow, as well as the debate sparked by its curatorial direction and title, A New Sculpturalism, among a community that does not like to be reduced to an “ism” (with the exception of Modernism) or a group identity nor be misread as sculptors.

Tune in Tuesday at 2:30 to hear from Frank Gehry, Thom Mayne, Neil Denari, Christopher Mount and the next generation architects who are designing and building pavilions for the show — among them Marcelo Spina and Georgina Huljich of p-a-t-t-e-r-n-s, whose Textile Room, testing the potential of carbon fiber tape, is shown in model form, above; and Tom Wiscombe, who describes his design, shown in the rendering below, as “a study of surface-to-volume transformations, where mass is achieved by pushing into a surface like a fist through a rubber sheet.”

Wiscombe’s design is made of “composite monocoque construction with variable-depth honeycomb core,” it is being fabricated by Barnacle Brothers (heard on this DnA) and, like the other pavilions, is costing more than the stipend given the designers by MOCA and the Getty. So Wiscombe and P-a-t-t-e-r-n-s have both crowdsourced extra funds. P-a-t-t-e-r-n-s have reached their target; Wiscombe has until midnight Monday to reach his. If you’d like to be part of the process, support it here.