Curated Space

Wide Open Arts hosted a curated booth of imaginary towers in the upcoming Outsider Art Fair | NYC (Jan 21-24 2016). The project and space was curated by independent artist and curator, Leah Gordon and the winning tower was judged by Leah Gordon and award-winning architect Vivian Chan, Studio Verve Architects.

Technology can make outsiders of us all...lack of technical knowledge can stand us outside of certain platforms of communication, while other technologies can form marginal communities that internalize socially alienated positions.

Babel is an installation of 3D-printed imaginary towers assembled from an online open call to a global community of sculptors, visionary artists, architects, engineers, 3D designers and model makers - contemporary, modern, and ancient towers; industrial or religious; fantastical or utilitarian; brutalist or gothic; from air traffic control towers to bell towers to tower blocks and sky scrapers.

Imaginary cities and surreal structures have long been the domain of many outsider artists including Simon Rodia (Watts Towers) and Le Facteur Cheval (Palais Ideal). The history of romantic landscape art is littered with ruinous towers punctuating bucolic panoramas. Historically, the tower has played a role in fortification, capitalist aggrandizement, and surveillance, but has also been closely aligned with the architecture of the devine, imaginary and sublime.

The pieces have been produced to small scale, paralleling the minute, detailed works created by many outsider artists. The final collective piece evokes the repetition found in many visionary environments, echoing the Chinese Terracotta Army or Nek Chand's Rock Garden in Chandigarh.

This installation aims to create a collective multi-authorial work that has roots in the Fluxus mail art movement. “Babel” is the 21st century mail art for the digital world.

1st prize winner: Phantom by Francesca Cirla
2nd place: Seaside Cottage by Josh Ajima
3rd place: She by Cathy Ward

Highly Commended
Thompson & Dundy’s Luna Park Electric Tower by Fred Kahl
Mimesis by Ryan Crooks
Bashar al-Assad Freedom Tower by Tom Bogaert

Commended
Spirographo by Caracol Design Studio
Expanded Support Structure by Dr. David Penny
Irish Round Tower by John Eden
Lotus Tower by Nancy Evans
Neo-Tehrani Sky Lounge by Reginald Raye
Nebula Fibro* by Ruxandra Grigoras and Ionut-Adrian Patrascu

Participants:
Agnes Martel, Turning Tower
Anish Mohite, Entwine
Beatriz Albuquerque, The Tower Of Earthly Delights
Ben Tritt, Post-Tectonic Artifact
Caracol Design Studio, Scirocco
Caracol Design Studio, Spirografo
Carlos R Gomez, Steel City-Container Skyscraper