A woman makes her way down the seawall along the Kitakama and Ainokama coastline in Sendai, Japan. After the tsunami in 2011 the Japanese government has spent billions of yen on the reconstruction of a 31.8 km seawall along the Sendai coastline ...
Annenberg Space For Photography Announces Sink Or Swim: Designing For A Sea Change
Featuring Works By Iwan Baan, Stephen Wilkes And Paula Bronstein Photography Exhibition Focuses on Resilient Design in a Time of Rising Seas on View from December 13, 2014 to May 3, 2015.
LOS ANGELES,
Sept. 10, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Annenberg Space for Photography announces
Sink or Swim: Designing for a Sea Change, on view from
December 13, 2014 to May 3, 2015.
Sink or Swim explores
the human story of resilience, from adaptation for survival to
ambitious infrastructure planning, in some of the richest and poorest of
the world's coastal communities. Rather than showing pristine
architectural photography, the photographs present viewers with various
human responses to changes in their landscapes due to sea level rise.
Sink or Swim aims
to foster critical dialogue through the provocative juxtaposition of
diverse responses to a challenge shared by millions worldwide.
Curated by architecture writer and radio host
Frances Anderton with the Annenberg Space for Photography,
Sink or Swim features newly commissioned and archival works by photographers
Iwan Baan, Stephen Wilkes, Paula Bronstein, Jonas Bendiksen and
Monica Nouwens.
This is the first exhibition for Annenberg Space for Photography to
feature commissioned works. Through the work of this select group of
architectural, fine art and news photographers, the exhibition casts an
eye on both the problem of climate change in densely populated coastal
regions and contemporary design as a means to navigate the changing
landscapes.
"We were eager to organize an exhibition focusing on architecture but
adamant that we wanted it to tell the story from a human perspective,"
says
Wallis Annenberg, Chairman of the
Board, President and CEO of the Annenberg Foundation. "We are delighted
that these new works tell such powerful stories about resiliency,
climate change and architecture as well as engage with viewers on a
humanistic level. The exhibit's capacity to foster dialogue that offers
fresh perspectives on the environmental issues of our day -- and how
communities are rising up to meet the challenges -- is very much keeping
with the mission of the Photography Space and the Annenberg
Foundation."
In the face of increasing global attention on climate change and
rebuilding in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, the Indian Ocean tsunami,
Superstorm Sandy, and the Tohuko tsunami,
Sink or Swim is a
timely examination of resiliency strategies in architecture and design.
Images range from highly complex coastal flood-mitigation in
the Netherlands, controversial sea walls in
Japan, to innovative homes and community buildings by leading architects including Pritzker prize-winners
Thom Mayne, Toyo Ito and
Shigeru Ban.
Anderton collaborated with photographers experienced in capturing
fragile built environments to determine the locations, design projects
and communities across the world that served as subjects for the
commissioned works in the exhibition. Sea walls, floating schools and
temporary disaster relief housing in disparate ecological and social
contexts provide concrete starting points for considering questions
about nature, culture and design at the heart of
Sink or Swim.
"It has been a privilege to dig into these extraordinary
photographers' rich archives and also send them back out on assignment
to create compelling new work that we look forward to sharing with the
public through the exhibition," says Anderton.
"Photography is an ideal medium through which to explore climate
change and the built environment because ultimately this is a human
story and the photographs get to the emotional heart of that story.
Through images of coastal communities—the devastating impact of climate
change, including super-storms and rising sea levels, and also the
varied and innovated design solutions—
Sink or Swim offers visitors the opportunity to engage with and enrich dialogue about all aspects of this predicament."
An original documentary film commissioned by the Annenberg Space for Photography and produced by award-winning director
Steven Kochones
and Arclight Productions will include interviews with the artists,
architects, historians and scientists engaged with climate resilient
strategies for waterfront communities.
A collaboration between the Annenberg Space for Photography and the
Annenberg Retreat at Sunnylands will offer visitors to Sunnylands a
preview of select prints from the
Sink or Swim exhibition. The images will be on display beginning in
October 2014
to coincide with a retreat at Sunnylands on the topic of rising sea
levels and ocean acidification. An exhibition catalogue will be
published by Sunnylands Press for release in
December 2014.
The Photographers Following his experience photographing
the celebrated Makoko Floating School (designed by Kunlé Adeyemi for the
Makoko community on the water near
Lagos, Nigeria,) Dutch photographer
Iwan Baan was drawn to the lake village of Ganvie in
Benin,
where residents have lived on the water for centuries. New work by Baan
in the exhibition also includes photographs of the massive Deltaworks
sea defenses; the promenade at Scheveningen near
The Hague in
the Netherlands,
a flood-protection system interwoven with a tourist destination
designed by Spanish firm De Solà-Morales; and the post-tsunami
Home-For-All community buildings by
Toyo Ito and other leading architects in
Japan.
U.S.-based fine art photographer
Stephen Wilkes revisited
communities he first encountered in the wake of Hurricane Katrina and
Superstorm Sandy. His images include striking aerial photographs that
present a unique perspective on infrastructure improvements within the
context of natural landscapes that remain susceptible to flooding.
Wilkes also created portraits of
New Orleans
area residents in the newly built homes, intended to be models for
resilience, by the Make It Right Foundation and Global Green in the
Lower 9
th Ward and
Holy Cross neighborhoods of
New Orleans. One of the first photographers to capture aerial images of the coastline damage following Hurricane Sandy, Wilkes documented
Staten Island's Oakwood Beach
where homeowners have elected to sell their property to the state,
which plans to return the area to wetlands rather than rebuild.
Veteran photojournalist
Paula Bronstein traveled to
Japan for
Sink or Swim and captured the immense sea walls now being built off the tsunami-hit coast of
Japan. She also captured daily life in the storage container structures designed by 2014 Pritzker Prize winner
Shigeru Ban to house refugees following the Tohuko earthquake and Tsunami.
Dutch-born,
Los Angeles-based, photographer
Monica Nouwens turned her lens on
California,
finding in the restored Malibu Lagoon a local example of wetlands
restoration. She also captures a very human story of denial, exemplified
in a photograph of a
California woman walking her dogs, oblivious to a tsunami sign above her head.
Sink or Swim also features Norwegian Magnum Photos photographer
Jonas Bendiksen's documentation of
Bangladesh
coastal and delta communities, where increasingly unpredictable and
intense flooding has prompted innovative adaptations in a culture that
has dealt with seasonal flooding for centuries. Bendiksen spent two
years capturing the low-tech structural and farming innovations in the
challenging landscape, as well as the floating schools project designed
by
Mohammed Rezwan for his nonprofit Shidulai Swanirvar Sangstha.
The Venue Annenberg Space for Photography, the only cultural destination in
Los Angeles
devoted solely to photography, strives to encourage the community to
explore universally-important subjects through one of the most
accessible and personal forms of art. During its 14-exhibit and
five-year history, the venue has approached a series of
thought-provoking subjects, such as the precarious state of the world's
fresh water, vanishing cultures and climate change.
The Annenberg Space for Photography Skylight Studios will continue to
host the popular Iris Nights lecture series with exhibit-related
speakers. The schedule will be announced at a later date. Educational
programming will be also offered in conjunction with the exhibition. The
Annenberg Foundation provides bus funding to Title 1 schools, allowing
educators to bring thousands of students to experience the Photography
Space, free of charge. The exhibition catalogue as well as other
exhibit-related merchandise will be available for purchase in Skylight
Studios' Retail Gallery.
About the Annenberg Space for PhotographyThe Annenberg
Space for Photography is a cultural destination dedicated to exhibiting
photography. The intimate environment features state-of-the-art,
high-definition digital technology as well as traditional prints by some
of the world's most renowned and emerging photographers. It is the
first solely photographic cultural destination in the
Los Angeles
area. The Photography Space conveys a range of human experiences and
serves as an expression of the philanthropic work of the Annenberg
Foundation and its Directors.
2014 marks the 25th anniversary of the Annenberg Foundation.
Annenberg Space for Photography
2000 Avenue of the Stars,
Los Angeles, CA 90067
www.annenbergspaceforphotography.org
Hours: Wednesday through Sunday:
11 am –
6 pm; closed Mondays and Tuesdays.
Admission is free.
Parking with validation is
$3.50 Wednesdays - Fridays and
$1.00 on weekends.
Photo -
http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20140910/144819
SOURCE The Annenberg Foundation
CONTACT: Polskin Arts, Los Angeles, Rachel Bauch,
323.841.4139, bauchr@finnpartners.com; Polskin Arts, New York, Sarah,
Brown McLeod, 212.715.1639, mcleodsa@finnpartners.com
RELATED LINKS
http://www.annenbergfoundation.org
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