Unearth, 2017
Exhibition: 5x5: Participatory Provocations
Curators: Original Copy, Kyle May Architect
Sponsors: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, RISD, CUDC, OMI International Arts Center
Team: Sean Gaffney
Size: 36”x4”x12”
5x5: Participatory Provocations is an exhibit of 25 architectural models by 25 young American architects. We were invited to address one of five contemporary issues through the construction of an architectural model, in this case, Trump Wall.
Dec 2, 2015 at a campaign rally in Manassas, VA:
Boy: “You’re going to build the wall? What’s it going to be made out of?”
Trump: “I tell you what it’s going to be made of, it’s going to be made of hardened concrete, and it’s going to be made out of rebar and steel. And you know, it’s so easy. That’s what I do.”
The blanket statements made by Trump disregard virtually all aspects of this complex issue other than materiality. The imprint left here is an artifact of the varying landforms such a panoptic wall would encase; 1,954 miles of vast deserts, mountains, cities, canyons and lakes are compressed into a single monolith.
