i See Earth review

Emmett has written a new text for architect Tom de Paor. The text was written as both a reflection and review of his work as presented in his retrospective exhibition, ‘I see Earth building and ground, 1991-2021’, at Visual Carlow, 26.02.22 to 22.05.22. Emmett recorded this new text for Tom as part of the podcast, What Buildings Do.

This recording can be listened to above.

The text was included in MAYDAY an event that took place in the exhibition on 01.05.22 to a live audience. From the curators:

‘MAYDAY is a unique programme that took place on 1 May 2022. Its length recalls the length of the flight in which the first human orbited the Earth. Nathalie Weadick and Hugh Campbell brought together 17 artists and thinkers whose work resonated with the themes, forms and experiences of the exhibition, I See Earth, a retrospective of work by Tom de Paor.’

A recording of the entire MAYDAY event is available below, courtesy of the Irish Architecture Foundation.

EXTRACT:

“…There have been labels sewn into the work of dePaor for thirty years now, many from within the field of architecture itself. His work is that of an ‘artist’; he is a ‘genius’, a ‘maverick’, totally ‘unique’. These, like all labels, even when respectfully intentioned are reductive, simplistic, rather clumsy attempts to classify but ultimately control how the work of the individual to which they are attached is understood or received. It is not that dePaor is not these things, but in VISUAL, he points to more. For example, dePaor depends on, clearly thrives on, collaboration and the support it might offer. His long-term partnership with Peter Maybury is as productive and influential as any other pairing you could point to in recent Irish architecture. It just takes a little more effort to describe…”