Issue No. 68: Architecture Is Not Art

Art Lies Issue No. 68: Architecture Is Not Art

Artlies.org

Envisioning an issue on “art and architecture,” we found a perfect interlocutor in the Houston- and New York-based conceptual artist Mary Ellen Carroll. Like Carroll’s Prototype 180—which made “architecture perform” in the Sharpstown subdivision of Houston by rotating “an acre of land and the existing single family home”—No. 68 enacts a series of shifts, reversals and contradictions, pushing the contents of Art Lies into “collateral disciplines…including policy, history, law, science, economics and the media.” Starting with the premise, “Architecture is inherently a political act, be it in the public or private sector…,” Carroll writes with Peter Noever in an introductory text:

“The magazine itself was taken as a structure to be considered, with the possibility for it to be ‘destroyed’ if necessary. Risks would be taken. This risk was determined variously by the contributors themselves and is relative to their own intentions and practices.”

Issue No. 68′s provocations and positions include: Morteza Baharloo on the symbolic history and potential of Tehran’s Azadi Tower, Asmara M. Tekle on the authoritarianism of the American lawn, Cynthia Chris on indecency and cable television, Eva Hagberg on Philip Johnson and oil! and Houston, and Marcos Sánchez and Mark Wasiuta of International House of Architecture on domestic marijuana production. Thoroughly interdisciplinary, No. 68 features novel collaborations: Simon Dance and Shezad Dawood map “Miscegenous London,” Florian Idenburg and Paula Hayes conceive “Neuroforms” and Renée Borgonjen and Berend Strik rally “Against Standardization and Sanitization.” Mevis & Van Deursen supplant the façade of the journal—and a cover featuring Michael Höpfner—with an essay by Domenick Ammirati.

“Architecture Is Not Art” continues online at Artlies.org in the coming weeks with texts and projects from: Laura Baird, Adrienne Edwards, Yasufumi Nakamori, Albert Pope and Mike Skinner.

Also in print in No. 68: Frances Colpitt remembers the oeuvre of the late Chuck Ramirez, Kate Bonansinga pieces together Liz Cohen’s Trabantimino and Risa Puleo visits Devon Dikeou‘s Austin, TX, home, as well as exhibition reviews from Texas and beyond: Ed Ruscha: Road Tested at the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth by Benjamin Lima, Peter Saul: 50 Years of Painting at Haunch of Venison by Tom McGrath, James Castle: Books at Lawrence Markey by Ben Judson, Exposed: Voyeurism, Surveillance and the Camera Since 1870 at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art by Lauren Hamer and more.

Check Artlies.org each Friday for Art Lies’ weekly online reviews.

Please Note: On March 30, 2011, Art Lies announced it will cease production and publication of its printed journal and website content as the organization enters a period of hiatus and reflection beginning this May. You can find a full copy of the press release here.

Issue No. 68, as well as all back issues, will be available for purchase through May 2011.

To purchase Issue No. 68, click here.

To purchase back issues of Art Lies, click here.

Art Lies is available in the United States at independent bookstores, museums and select Barnes & Noble locations, and internationally via the Web at www.artlies.org.

Founded and rooted in Texas, Art Lies provides an international forum for the critical examination of artistic practice, theory and discourse on and about the contemporary arts. Art Lies achieves its mission through the publication of a printed journal, weekly-updated website, our Guest Editorial Program, membership events and public programming, including the Art Lies Annual Distinguished Critic Lecture Series.

*Image above:
Art Lies No. 68 Inside Cover
Left: Domenick Ammirati with Mevis & Van Deursen, Page 2 of Structure, Metaphor, Contemporary Art
Right: Michael Höpfner, Outpost of Progress, 2008; plastic sheeting, sisal line, wooden posts; 120 x 80 x 65 inches; courtesy the artist and Hubert Winter Gallery, Vienna.