Liam Young: New Romance

The Arthur Ross Architecture Gallery at the Columbia University Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation (Columbia GSAPP) presents Liam Young: New Romance, the first US solo exhibition of speculative architect, artist, and filmmaker Liam Young. Presenting three new short fiction films—In the Robot Skies (2016), Where the City Can’t See (2016), and the debut of Renderlands (2017)—the exhibition charts Young’s recent explorations of cinematic narrative as a form of architectural representation and design. The three films are screened on a loop in a purpose-built cinema inside the gallery. The installation also includes specialized props developed by Young, as well as materials and research that helped shape the fictional worlds encompassed in each film.

Liam Young has emerged as one of the most distinctive and adventurous voices in contemporary architecture. At the core of his multidisciplinary practice is a continuous interrogation of the present realities of cities. Through research expeditions, documentary film and photography, storytelling, and performance he extrapolates and exaggerates existing networks, systems, and technologies to imagine possible future urbanisms. The exhibition reveals Young’s emerging engagement with narrative film—and in particular world building, the design of a cinematic universe in which a narrative evolves—as an architectural medium. The exhibited films also demonstrate his ground-breaking experimentation with new technologies. Young deploys autonomous drones (In the Robot Skies), manipulates laser scanning and data (Where the City Can’t See), and mines the digital detritus of the global industry of outsourced renderings (Renderlands) to create new worlds where speculative scenarios unfold. Harnessing fiction and visualization technologies to craft urban imaginaries, the trio of films expand our understanding of how architectural design can uncover potential urban futures.

Liam Young: New Romance is organized by Irene Sunwoo, Columbia GSAPP Director of Exhibitions, with Adam Bandler, Assistant Director of Exhibitions.

Following its New York presentation at the Ross Gallery, Liam Young: New Romance will travel to Columbia GSAPP’s Studio-X in Istanbul, Turkey, where it will coincide with the 15th Istanbul Biennial on September 16, 2017.

Liam Young is an Australian-born architect who operates in the spaces between design, fiction and futures. He is founder of the think tank Tomorrow’s Thoughts Today, a group whose work explores the possibilities of fantastic, speculative and imaginary urbanisms. Building his design fictions from the realities of present, Young also co-runs the Unknown Fields Division, a nomadic research studio that travels on location shoots and expeditions to the ends of the earth to document emerging trends and uncover the weak signals of possible futures. He has been acclaimed in both mainstream and architectural media, including a 2017 BAFTA nomination for Consumed in the Best British Short Film Award category. His work is screened at international film festivals and has been collected by institutions such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Victoria and Albert Museum. Young has taught at the Architectural Association and Princeton University and now runs an MA in Fiction and Entertainment at SCI-Arc.

Founded in 1990, the Arthur Ross Architecture Gallery presents exhibitions that explore emerging architectural practices, research, and ideas. Through collaborations with architects and artists, historical research, and programming, the gallery produces and supports exhibitions that seek to challenge disciplinary conventions and advance architectural discourse.

Related event
 
I Spy with my Machine Eye
March 31, 7–9pm
audio-visual performance by Liam Young 
e-flux, 311 East Broadway, New York, NY 10002