Art and Architecture
76 Intersecting Interests Robert Irwin at the Chinati Foundation, Marfa
Jen Wong
82 Regarding the Grotesque Spineway, San Antonio
Kevin McClellan, AIA
PHOTO BY JOSH HUSKIN
The relationship between art and architecture is a very old one, and yet there is no consensus on where one begins and the other ends; whether or not they are distinguishable; whether or not they can, in fact, be defined at all; or whether or not it would be useful to define them in the first place. Indeed, to attempt to circumscribe these disciplines within tidy boundaries — or even to categorize them individually — is to peer into the swirling semantic abyss that post-structuralist philosophers assure us awaits at the start of any such inquiry. It’s enough to make one grateful for United States Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart’s comment about figuring out what is and what isn’t hard-core pornography: “I know it when I see it.” Well, to consider the two projects in this issue’s Portfolio section is to realize that you are looking at works of art that, in very different ways, are also works of architecture. To be reductive about it, one seems more sculpture than building; the other, more building than sculpture. Both, however, are planted firmly at the crossroads of art and architecture and, one hopes, offer inspiration to those who dwell in the more pragmatic regions of the profession.