Berkeley Art Museum's new installation puts the fun in
functional art
BAMscape invites visitors to sit, lounge, or study on a work
of art
By Wendy Edelstein, NewsCenter |
9 February 2010
BERKELEY — Museums once
were sanctuaries where visitors quietly contemplated artwork.
Times have changed. Many modern museums now serve as gathering
spots for the art-minded and (especially) the young. To this
end the Berkeley Art Museum (BAM) last fall launched L@TE,
a Friday evening series where the doors stay open late and the
program includes DJs, wine and beer, and much gregarious socializing.
BAMscape,
a commissioned installation in the Berkeley Art Museum's
central atrium, features a lumpy,
irregularly shape and lots of electrical outlets for laptop
users. (Photo
courtesy of BAM)
BAMscape, a commissioned installation in the
museum's central atrium, supports BAM's new activities
and direction. To give the space an airier feeling and
make room for the piece — a 1,550 square-foot vibrant-orange
construction — BAM removed interior walls in its
central atrium, Gallery 2, leaving the west windows
exposed.
Berkeley architect Thom Faulders, who conceived and designed BAMscape,
describes the piece as "very amorphous, free form, lumpy,
irregularly shaped." Made from curved, painted wood assembled
over a foam core, BAMscape reflects the sometimes competing
uses envisioned for the piece.
The museum wanted to create an environment where visitors can
congregate and a structure on which they can lounge and relax — in
deference to what BAM Director Lawrence Rinder calls a "more
energetic, dynamic, and social types of programming and atmosphere" in
contemporary museums. The recent economic downturn, he speculates,
may be drawing people to such art happenings at BAM and other
museums.
"People don't want to be alone now," Rinder says. "There's
an urgency to bond, to feel part of a community." Perhaps
a generational shift is in play as well. When it comes
to cultural consumption, the young seem to "experience
things more in groups … rather than in a solitary, contemplative
way," observes Rinder. "Museums ignore these social
dynamics at their peril."
Faulders, who teaches architecture at California College of
the Arts, conceived a "cross grain" for BAMscape,
with soft contours in one direction "that welcome the body
in any number of positions." In the opposite direction he
constructed a series of steps that invite people to gather
informally.
BAMscape was also designed to be durable (since people
will walk on it for several years), yet inviting "both psychologically
and for the body," Faulders says. It features abundant electrical
outlets to accommodate laptop users, and materials that can be
recycled or reused at the end of its lifecycle.
Faulders calls BAM his favorite Bay Area structure, while acknowledging
that its brutalist architecture brings "a kind of coldness," especially
on dark days or during evening hours. To offset that chill
he decided, after conducting a series of color studies, to paint
the installation "hyper orange." While BAMscape may
seem "entirely irregular," says Faulders, "there's
some intention to the madness."
BAMscape is on view — and available for use — through
Nov. 30, 2011.
Related coverage: BAM/PFA
kicks off edgy Friday night series (Nov. 2009)
