2008.05 Scaffolding
I see scaffolding as an interesting vernacular architecture of the contemporary city. It keeps popping up all over the place; these massive structures akin to medieval buildings. They are not designed by design professionals but are crafted by people that do stuff. This week I saw a scaffold where the orange beacon of a zebra crossings had been carefully exposed by some unknown scaffolding craftsman in the most amazing manner. In this sense scaffoldings directness is as refreshing as the qualities of vernacular architecture that I enjoy. These qualities are born out of the way that people have responded to the specifics of their time, place, topography, gravity, weather, material, use requirements, light, safety, social hierarchies, politics etc. The beauty of scaffolding is that it responds to the same things but without the big weight of cultural meaning on its shoulders. Although it is very much there in our cities we do not tend to notice it. It is a supporting structure that facilitates other events. Maybe it just exists and should not be objectified by an image but photographing it does record the idea that the Irish curator and critic, Declan McGonagle, puts forward that, Art is a verb not a noun. The kind of art that evidences a process tends to be one that draws me in.
Ken Taylor is an Architect and Director of Quay 2c, a multi disciplinary practice of Artists and Architects in Peckham. He is a past chair of Artpoint Trust a Public Art Commissioning Agency in Oxford and has taught in many Schools of Architecture. He is also the co-curator of the m2 gallery with the artist Julia Manheim.
