Tree House Design in Montreal
Artists' tree house visions at the Liane and Danny Taran Gallery
Did you imagine idyllic dwellings as a child? (My secret tree house had a spiral staircase and built-in swings.) Now, the Saidye Bronfman Centre exhibits art tree houses.
It was tucked away in a forest, a getaway from the blandness of my suburban street, and I could read books and play with my best friends Squirrel and Fox. Well, we all have our own memories. But getting back to the fanciful roots of architecture is precisely what guest curators Lesley Johnstone, Susannah Wesley and John Zeppetelli accomplished with their summer show at the Saidye Bronfman Centre for the Arts in Montreal. Tree House is an exploration of imaginative spaces under the condition that each artist utilizes a tree limb.
Revealed by the East wall of the Liane and Danny Taran Gallery lies the source of inspiration for the exhibit, the dramatic Parc Mackenzie-King landscape. As curator John Zeppetelli noted, "the view is an integral part of the actual exhibition experience. We wanted to make a connection with it because it can be very beautiful, but sometimes very intrusive."
Tree House may also be considered a smaller offshoot of the internationally acclaimed pavilion programme at the Serpentine Gallery in London. Each summer since 2000, the lawn of Kensington Gardens has dawned a temporary pavilion created by world renowned architects, such as Zaha Hadid, Daniel Libeskind, Oscar Niemeyer, Toyo Ito Alvaro Siza, Eduardo Souto de Moura, and this year's Dutch Londoner Rem Koolhaas. Though the Bronfman guest curators were smitten with the idea of a pavilion commission, they needed to do something on a smaller scale. As there is no solid definition of what a pavilion should be or look like, a tree house is just as open for experimentation.
The exhibit brings together nine Montreal artists, architects, landscape architects, and performance artists, to design and exhibit conceptual tree house maquettes. In fact, only one in the roster of tree house designers is a an actual architect. Michael Carroll, founding partner of Montreal's acclaimed Atelier BUILD, is known for his modern homes built in tight spaces. However, each of the invited designers has something different to offer. Naomi London, who focuses on sculpture/installation and drawing came up with upholstered stools sprouting up in every which direction, much like mushrooms on a log. Her stools were fashioned with vinyl polka dots, and it is no wonder that her interests include the psychology of optimism, play and happiness.
Tree House is on view until September 10, 2006 and is a point of departure for a symposium to be held on September 7, 2006 entitled: Tree House as Utopia. The symposium, hosted by the Canadian Centre for Architecture, aims at addressing alternative architecture and utopian typologies.
