Review of Kawamata's Reims Plan 4

The way in which Kawamata illustrates his concept for Reims Plan 4, is similar to the way in which i plan to construct the main tower for my final piece. How will i set out the planks, will they be horizontal or vertical? will they be fixed randomly together or will they be tightly fitted and arranged precisely?
How will i attach each plank, with tacks, nails or screws. will i secure each piece with wood glue to supply the structure with extra support? if so that would effect its ability to be easily deconstructed for transport.
Build the entire structure in pieces to allow for easy deconstruction and reconstruction, this way it makes each piece more manageable, easy to transport and adjust if necessary.
Will it be lighted, and if so how? with its own separate light source? why? what would this add/give to the piece?
Make it a functional, accessible structure that complies to health and safety regulations, allow spectators to enter and interact with the materials as i would have done during its construction.

Combining more than one raw material in the same piece, something i don't do in my practice, why?
The reason for me me not incorporating more than one material into the same piece is simple, i react to the materials available to me, and in most cases there has been only one type of resource in place for me to use, or one particular dominant resource. It just so happens that when constructing a non permanent structure, i feel using individual materials rather than a grouping of materials works better both for the piece aesthetically and my current practice.

Evaluation of Kawamata's practice in comparison to my own

Kawamata creates projects which border on installation and architecture, his artistic interventions are focused on urban sites. The artist refers to the relationship between the artistic creation /material/ existing space, by composing the work into the existing environment and building a structural connection. Kawamata's works are ingenious simulations of urban situations - roads, bridges, passages, "private" spaces - they are unreal, unrealistic and non-functional objects. The artist relates to the urban chaos of modern cities which is invisible at first glance because it is hidden behind rational, planned structures. Kawamata builds over existing urban objects, facades and interiors with complicated labyrinths of scaffolding, creating a resemblance of architectural "cancer". He defies the rules of logic and symmetry, the laws of architectural rhythm and multi-level hierarchy, questioning the systems of habits linked to utility and aesthetics. His projects provoke associations with the polymorphous and equivocal nature of fractals.


Some of the fundamental themes occurring in Kawamata's practice feature heavily within my own practice. ideas of showing the relationship between individualistic artistic creation/ materials/ and already existing space's, the incorporation of these ideas exist as underlying concepts within my practice. How best can i communicate my ideas, and in what form should these concepts be constructed?

My experience into carpentry

Each summer i spend working on numerous building sites to raise money for my following year of study, unknowingly the skills i learnt during these times have become dominant in my practice. I feel comfortable working with raw materials and feel the outcomes i produce are increasingly successful. On each new site i spent my time laboring and learning from tradesman across the spectrum of contemporary skills used within construction, from these life experiences i have gained an invaluable knowledge which has both broadened my concepts with how my current practice is developing, and on what i am now able to achieve with my newly gained industrial understanding.

Overview of the Babylon Exhibition

I discovered this exhibition online and decided to visit as it strongly supports my practice. The story of the mythological tower is something i read about as a child, myths and fables have always interested me and were always a dominating theme within my childhood, so i am not surprised that my practice has (perhaps subconsciously) turned down this route. Personally i find historical architecture interesting to learn about, and find it visually stimulating. The thought of these amazing structures once having existed, having been built purely by hard labour under immense visionary skills, is something i enjoy researching and am sure will benefit my concepts positively.


The Story has reached us most widely through the Bible, the most extensively read book in the world. This is what gives the Babylon fantasy its remarkable reach. From the destruction of Jerusalem by the Babylonians; the taking into captivity of the Jews; the psalmist laments about sitting by the rivers of Babylon, the Tigris and the Euphrates, and remembering Zion, have all entered our consciousness on a primary level through the education of the Bible. When stalking the halls of the British Museum i find myself engrossed in all and everything it has to offer.
The show consists of a thoroughly absorbing display of relaxed revisionism that sets out to tackle the myths about Babylon. Its not filled with ancient treasures, and marvelous wonders from the old world. Instead, an interesting array of maps, models, texts and photos, accompanied by a precious selection of battered artifacts make up the source of the exhibition, in a comprehensive telling of Babylon’s fantastical story. An exciting display of hopeless western pictures, desperately trying to visualize the distant Metropolis present some of the exhibitions most interesting work.

The most exciting artworks on display are western pictures trying hopelessly to visualise distant Babylon.

Midnight Tower

This is a piece i built on a construction site found in winton on Alma road. Once again my guerilla mind set of creating work urged me to locate an alternate site to work in. Whilst searching i came across this freshly placed site, its materials all unpackaged waiting to be used. The dominant resource present were piles of both dense-form concrete blocks and standard breeze blocks. Setting myself the task of constructing a tower to rise above the surrounding wall, both making it visible to spectators on the pedestrians side of the wall, and introducing a dominant structure within the building site, i set out a floor plan with breeze blocks to visualize my ideas and experiment with measurements. After selecting the appropriate size and specific siting of the piece, i removed the light-weight breeze blocks and began construction with the heavier concrete blocks. Working without rest, only to conceal myself from the passing patrolmen of the site, which luckily for me only passed every twenty minuets exactly, so there movements were easily tracked. Fortunately they passed my mid constructed piece multiple times without suspecting anything amiss. After around three hours of fast construction and scheduled concealment times, the tower was complete. I quickly documented the piece and left the building site unnoticed, the tower remaining a monument for the builders the following day to ponder over. I plan to possibly construct another sculpture in this location as the amount of available materials applicable to my practice was abundant on this site.