Build Me Up/Tear Me Down: Provisional Structures and Contested Zones

As part of Architecture: A Borderline Case, a thematic series of exhibitions, projects and educational programs, the AGW has organized Build Me Up/Tear Me Down: Provisional Structures and Contested Zones, which includes the works of twelve international and Canadian artists who examine the city as a constantly changing arena of architectural and social activity. Buildings seem so permanent that we often forget that they are really temporary structures, held together by social, political and cultural activities. From photographs of trailers by Windsor-based photographer Brenda Francis Pelkey to the breath taking image of the World Trade Centre disaster by New York artist Carolee Schneemann, this exhibition provides a range of perspectives on the ephemeral nature of the built environment. Several artists, including Vienna-based Sabine Bitter and Helmut Weber and ThinkArchitecture from the UK, came to Windsor earlier in the year to create new work about our region. Other artists, including William Christenberry, who is from Washington D.C, and the mysterious Object orange, a Detroit collective, photograph abandoned buildings in various states of decay. Botto and Bruno from Turin, Italy and Vancouver’s Jayce Salloum, examine the provisional structures of street culture, disaafected youth and the homless.