RAM Gallery
20th anniversary-exhibition

November 19th 2009 - February 14th 2010

The Re-opening of RAM Gallery

- a light construction breaking the security of the white cube.

by James Carpenter & Davidson Norris (NY/USA).

Vernissage Thursday November 19th at 7pm

Artist Statement

…the 'window' is really about a trapped volume of light/time/climate regimes which are hybridized within the thickness of the wall. The entering of the 'outside' into the White Cube is a layered presence. The neutrality and autonomous nature of the White Cube is challenged by this simultaneity of varied realities.

The Oslo Light is overlaid and hybridized with a condensed NY light as captured in a 24 hour cycle. Both cycles of time play over each other with moments of convergence and divergence, with the stretched period of time of a day/night intersecting with the accelerated day/night, where the natural light cycle is activated by the synthetic light cycle.

The window is a diffused layer of glass on the interior surface of the gallery, the depth of the wall is revealed by the white perpendicular frame casement and the outer surface of the wall is another layer of diffused glass. The quality of light we are speaking of is a very abstracted field of forms and brightness and shadow - it is not a recognizable world but a suggestive presence where the image/information falls on the outer glass lite, the window casement frame and the inner glass lite, together forming a volume of responsive depth.

The influence of this volume of light in/on/upon the White Cube is a subtle activation of the Cubes surfaces - the floor, ceiling and wall become very quietly animated by this 'new' light. One might turn away from the 'window' volume to observe its' greater presence within the gallery volume. The security of the White Cube is broken and this reality invades. The variability of this 'new' light, with it's pollen from New York, hybridizes with the Oslo light to germinate a new presence. It is a volume of air, of absence, of void, but the wrapper of this volume is this 'new' light - it is a form, if tumbled in your hands, that is prismatic, kaleidoscopic, telescopic.

                                                   - James Carpenter & Davidson Norris

Biography

James Carpenter

James Carpenter studied architecture and sculpture at the Rhode Island School of Design, graduating in 1972. Mr. Carpenter actively exhibited his sculpture and installation film projects in the United States and Europe and worked from 1972 through 1982 as a consultant with Corning Glass Works in Corning, New York. He worked on the development of new glass materials including photo responsive glasses and various glass ceramics. These research projects were aimed at potential architectural applications which would utilize the unique technical capabilities of these glasses to control and manipulate light and information, and this work eventually brought him back to the practice of architecture itself. This emphasis on theoretical, aesthetic and industrial materials research, together with Mr. Carpenter’s ongoing practice in architecture and structural glass design, continues to inform and guide the work of James Carpenter Design Associates. Mr. Carpenter is the recipient of numerous awards including the National Environmental Design Award from the Smithsonian Institution, the American Institute of Architects Honor Award and a MacArthur Foundation Fellowship in 2004. Since 1978, Mr. Carpenter has been working to develop independent and integrated building structures that have progressively synthesized art and architecture. The studio, James Carpenter Design Associates Inc., is a collaborative environment encouraging an exchange of ideas between architects, materials and structural engineers, environmental engineers and fabricators. The studio has developed unique architectural projects and structural designs employing glass, steel, wood and composites for a variety of works, including museums, university buildings, commercial office towers and cultural facilities. The emphasis of JCDA’s design leadership with such major projects as the redevelopment of the McKim Mead & White Farley Post Office as the new Pennsylvania Station in New York (2005); the planning and design of the renewed campus of the Israel Museum in Jerusalem (2005-2009), and the completion of the exterior and lobby of Seven World Trade Center (2001-2006) in New York has focused upon the transformation of the urban environment and public realm.

James Carpenter resume >>

Davidson Norris resume>>