Fractals of Insight: Rehearsing Realities at CAB5

The fifth edition of the Chicago Architecture Biennial (CAB) is a provocation to view the world as a place that needs saving. If not exactly ‘saving’ per se, then as a place that’s widely misunderstood, mistreated, misused, and mysteriously metamorphosing towards an unwelcome future fraught with a multitude of threats. Can they be mitigated? Should we not strive to reduce their impact if mitigation isn’t feasible? What guides the discussion that determines the viability of addressing these issues? How bleak a future are we truly talking about? Should we consider the exaggerations? Are we dismissing them as exaggerations due to our unawareness? These are some of the many questions that I began to ponder as I walked through the Chicago Cultural Center, a pivotal venue for the CAB 5.

In light of the theme of the biennial titled, ‘This is a Rehearsal,’ the exhibited works form a collective ensemble of responses. They oscillate between proposing solutions akin to a rehearsal for identified problems and presenting a layered perspective on instances far more intricate than conventionally perceived. This depiction underlines that the subtleties of reality surpass our initial perceptions, prompting us to prepare ourselves for a multilayered reality—an enactment, a rehearsal for the labyrinth of complexities that the future holds.

 

The former instance was illustrated through Anupama Kundoo Atelier’s poignant representation of small domed houses meticulously constructed in Puducherry, India. These houses fashioned as kilns, embodied a labor-intensive yet remarkably sustainable and cost-effective construction process. The project strategically incorporated urban waste: repurposing bicycle wheels as formwork for windows and subsequently transforming them into intricate window grills; utilizing glass bottles as integral components in the masonry of toilet areas; and ingeniously employing chai glasses to adorn the dome's upper openings. The essence lay in the fusion of an in-situ construction process and resource utilization from the market’s peripheries, fundamentally reshaping the conventional approach to affordability through the lens of sustainability. Its endeavor being to democratize the creation of housing, positioning it within the grasp of the wider populace. Contrastingly, Camille Henrot's sculpture titled ‘Fairweather Mother,’ part of a broader series delves into the intricacies of dependency and the paradoxical nature of care. It highlights its reach beyond primary caregivers to include others such as teachers, mentors, and friends– an overlap of all these experiences lends itself to shaping a child's world. She throws light on the inherently messy nature of care, laying bare the dichotomy, a stark contrast between the honest reality and the idealized perception of caregiving as a straightforward, nurturing act of love and attention. Her contemplations encapsulate a richly complex terrain, shunning away notions of an idealized utopia.
 

Further on the spectrum of messy realities, we see Asim Waqif’s deep dive into a long-standing question, What happens to a city’s discards? The installation mirrors the expansive collection of waste amassed by Ken Dunn’s Resource Center. Spools of rejected black rubber tubing snake through the space, embodying the consequential rejection of these tubes by fabricators at the slightest detection of a defect along their length. This array of rejected tubes serves as a visual testament to the relentless accumulation of refuse at Dunn’s Center, an indictment of society's unsustainable industrial practices. In continuation with the same theme, Gamaliel Rodriguez’s series of synthetic landscape paintings beckons a contemplation of a world where industrial structures meld seamlessly into nature, devoid of human presence. Initially perceived as dystopian fabrications, Rodriguez’s works transcend fiction, reflecting a troubling hyperreality. While his native land grapples with its tragic fate, these canvases cease to remain speculative; instead, they serve as eerie glimpses into a prescient reality. Executed in the familiar rectilinear style found in municipal and residential structures worldwide, these scenes seem universal. The artworks teeter on the edge between ambiguity and specificity, rendering landscapes that recede into three-dimensional space. Melancholy shades of gray and cerulean balance the delicate tension between aerial perspectives, and meticulous detailing beckons viewers into a realm both chillingly distant and strangely intimate.

Amidst the menagerie of exhibits dealing in spatial contexts, I stumbled upon one that dissected spatial conditioning and its psychological implications by comparing and contrasting two distinct spaces and their effects of spatial settings on the human psyche. It offered me a profound reflection on how seemingly disparate spaces interweave common threads and explored this thread of commonality through the medium of an experiment. This particular exhibit, ‘Wish You a Lovely Sunday’ by Young-jun Tak, took the form of a compelling video presentation, boldly juxtaposing two distinct locales: a church and a queer club.

The essence of this work lay in the audacious pairing of two choreographers tasked with creating site-specific choreographies—one for a church and the other for a queer club. Upon completion, the choreographies were interchanged between the venues, compelling the participants to swiftly readapt their creations to the new spatial contexts. Through the lens of the video, the struggles, fervor, and unwavering commitment of the protagonists in reconfiguring their choreographies to suit the new environments unfolded. Despite the ostensibly contrasting natures of churches and queer clubs, each space, in its own right, resonated with ritualistic behaviors and fostered specific attitudes inherent to its setting. Both locales, despite their diverse purposes, are fundamentally community-centric, striving to provide solace and well-being, catering to the visitor’s mental or physical needs. The exhibition masterfully converged religious practices and club culture, presenting an improbable fusion that challenged the preconceived notions of these spaces. It was a stimulating experience that helped me decontextualize space, allowing me to observe them through a fundamental lens of architecture—a perspective so elemental, often eluding the gaze of many.

 

The next exhibit to have caught my attention was Freedom Square: The Black Girlhood Altar. It was a sacred haven, an ethereal sanctuary commemorating the absence of Black girls and women. This mixed-media installation emerged amid the pandemic's shroud, transmuting public spaces from mere trauma sites into unified realms of remembrance and empowerment. The Altar paid homage to the lives of eight Black women and girls: Rekia Boyd, Latasha Harlins, Ma’Khia Bryant, “Hope,” “Harmony,” Marcie Gerald, Lyniah Bell, and Breonna Taylor, illuminating stories often silenced by injustice and hauntingly preserved by a select few. Expanding across three distinct gallery spaces—Ritual and Prayer, Rest and Recess: The Courtyard, and Call and Response—each introduced by an evocatively colored lightbox, the Altar's narrative unfolded. The North Gallery embodied ‘Ritual and Prayer’, a sanctuary housing the altar and offering solace for families and visitors to reflect. Meanwhile, the Middle Gallery, ‘Rest and Recess: The Courtyard’, drew inspiration from Tillet's ongoing exploration of Black girl play and resistance, serving as a homage to Rekia Boyd within Douglass Park's envisioned monument. Finally, the South Gallery embodied ‘Call and Response’, a meticulously curated space interweaving intergenerational photographs and video-based art. Here, spirituality, grief, and remembrance harmonized, engaging in a profound dialogue with The Black Girlhood Altar. Together, these galleries stood not merely as exhibitions but as transcendent whispers echoing the resilience, unspoken stories, and enduring legacies of those whose lives were unjustly extinguished.

 

From the poignant representation of sustainable housing solutions to the reflections on the complexities of care and dependency, from the entangled maze of urban waste to the eerie prescience of synthetic landscapes, every artwork beckoned introspection, offering glimpses into a multifaceted reality that eludes simplistic understanding.

The collective resonance of these exhibits, whether portraying grim realities or delving into hyperrealistic or speculative realms, resonates with a singular call—to contemplate causality and its potential resolutions. Some works boldly presented solutions, while others, though more abstract, incited contemplation on the pathways toward resolution. Through the varying scales of the concepts, the exhibition offered a unique vantage point—a panoramic view of our world and its multiple coefficients. It encouraged a distanced contemplation on the multiplicities of space, urging us to widen the spectrum of pairings hinting that it could lead to newer, more evolved architectural solutions that might actually be able to minimize the impact of foreboding future scenarios. As I depart, the echoes of these works continue to stir—a reminder to reimagine, reframe, and reconsider our perceptions of the world– one fractal response at a time.