Harrison Phan



A Bathhouse Appearing Twice, Crudely

Installation - Spatial - Experiential - Fabrication

SCI-Arc Gallery Exhibition

Director: David Eskenazi

Fall 2023 - Supervisors: Kaita Saito, Morgan Sobotka


‘A Bathhouse Appears Crudely, Twice’ is an exhibition that brings up the topics of the doppelgänger, the simulacrum, reflections from the surface of water, or even the story of Eve. It is an argumentative binary comparing art vs. craft, new vs. familiar, or beauty vs. ordinary.

The exhibit is about being simultaneously right and wrong - being on both sides of the argument. Two models are assembled, one more architectural with structure and panelization and the other is made of paper and tape. Both portray crudeness - leaks, gaps, slumping; alone, they are forgetful and uncared for, but together they begin to produce a dialog between each other. Are they total opposites or near copies? It doesn’t matter. Their appearance together reminds us that we don’t have one identity but inhabit many things at once.


                      -David Eskenazi


Isometric rendering of installation, courtesy of David Eskenazi
Perspective rendering of installation, courtesy of David Eskenazi


Fabrication

Volunteer work encompasses making water bags inside panels, crafting ‘tape’ joinery, assembling fiberglass structure, attaching paper panels onto bathhouse structure









Spatial / Experiential

Photography by Brian Guido and Rory Hamovit




Detail Shots
Photography by Brian Guido and Rory Hamovit


After Party

Deinstall + clean up



Maison de Cartes

Installation - Spatial - Experiential - Fabrication

SCI-Arc Gallery Exhibition

Director: Gordon Kipping

Spring 2024 - Supervisors: Olivia Saed-Billingsly


Maison de Cartes proposes a module of construction for the crisis of our time: climate change. This module of construction is in the spirit of Les Maisons Dom-ino, however, using mass timer as the structure or backbone for the construction.

For the exhibition, a fragment of the Maison de Cartes is constructed in the exhibition space, complete with the expression of fragility and impossible balance. Through the use of an augmented reality application available to your smartphone, the fragment is extended on your screen with wireframe linework to compose the whole. As one moves through the exhibition space with the augmented reality application, real-time/real-space perception of the fragment is augmented with the completion of a representation of the Maison de Cartes.

To demonstrate its mutabiity, Maison de Cartes is taken through a geometric progression to become the Hocken House, a residential project currently under development by Gordon Kipping Architects in Toronto, Canada. The Maison de Cartes fragment is to have a second life and support another crisis. The mass timber fragment upon disassembly is reassembled into a cube which is redeployed to provide emergency transitional shelter on an encampment site of the unhoused.


                     -Gordon Kipping


Deconstructed installation, manufactured and built off-site
Fabrication

Volunteer work part of a team of 6 fabricating and assembling picture frames for gallery exhibition.




Final constructed installation, photography by Joshua White
Rendering of full Maison de Cartes, visible via AR app at installation, courtesy of Gordon Kipping
Detail photos by Joshua White

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