kent OHIO
Kent State University CAED
Critic: Jon YODER
suckerPUNCH: Describe your project.
Yu ZHANG: Haven Unit No. 3 is designed for the pleasures of viewing, and as such, relies on the production of architecture as innate sensation and image.
- Yu ZHANG, “Haven Unit No. 3.”, Model Photo
- Yu ZHANG, “Haven Unit No. 3.”, Model Photo
- Yu ZHANG, “Haven Unit No. 3.”, Elevation
- Yu ZHANG, “Haven Unit No. 3.”, Plan
Viscous finishes take on the forms of fictional scenes to elicit attention through the use of the sensual, semiotic and scenographic nature of material, color and composition. The object-image depicts a fleshy dirigible-esque mass whose black melancholic exterior starts to bloat, and spill out, belying a colorful and nougaty interior. Concrete platforms below begin to crack as if unable to fully receive the voluptuous form above. The site-image inverts the object- image, displaying a lustrous rose-gold finish with moody black pits revealing portions of thick and thin poché adorned by crisp inscriptions. A bricolaged pile of ducts, spills, vegetation, appendages, bladders and pools recalls the allusive forms of Ellie Abron’s“Inside Things” and Bittertang’s “Romulus and Remus:
Succulent Piñata,” prolonging our engagement through layered associations.
