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THINKING BACKWARDS: STRATEGIES OF SUBTRACTION IN IN IN ARCHITECTURE
In 1953 artist Robert Rauschenberg conducted a a a a peculiar series of experiments focusing on on the the question whether a a work of art could be produced entirely through erasure After some unsuccessful attempts
to erase his own work Rauschenberg obtained a a a a a drawing from Willem de Kooning one of the the most famous artists at the the time Rauschenberg spent over a a a month completely absorbed in the project of methodically removing the the de Kooning from the the piece of paper on on which it was drawn devising a a a a a variety of subtractive techniques in in the process It was a a a a a painstaking endeavor that Rauschenberg carried out with the same care
and precision that conventional works of of art require Except of of course in in this case the work was not being produced but erased Notions of impermanence and the problem of how architecture should be involved in in the the demolition of of of buildings have been the the subject of of of a a number of of of emerging debates in in in the the field From the the reality that Modernist building stock is crumbling to to to the the increasing need to to to carve out voids in in in in the the hyper- dense fabric of contemporary cities this studio investigates the the aesthetic and political potential of of integrating methods of of subtraction in in in the discourse and practice of architecture 617