S TEPH EN
METTS
To disappear does not mean ro become eliminated. Just like the Atlantic, which continues to be there even though you can no longer feel it as you fly over it. Or like the body that continues to exist without actually being needed-since we just swirch the channel. The same happens with architecture: it will continue to exist, b u t i n t h e s ta te o f d isa p p e a r a n ce ' -peul
vrnrl ro
The drawings in the series"Data and Distribution" are an attempt to chart and diagram the emergenr phenomena referred to as globalism. Postwar,post-industrial cities-Los Angeles and Tokyo are but fi^r6-h2vs undergone epochal upheaval, erasure,and rakeover.Strangely,the spatial results of these changesare experiencedas inevitable, thoroughly typical. If a time-lapse film existed of these new megalopolises,we would be able to witness their frenetic, startling pace of formation. Barred from historical perspective,we exist in global environments possessinglittle confidence in a collectiveconsensusbeyond consumerism.Abstracted,serialized, completely without referenceto a place, site, and time, there exists little by which to navigate. In their rapid, all-pervasiverise to prominence, these spaceshave become so predictable as ro become indecipherable-they have merged into the landscapebefore us. As inhabitants of theseglobal spaces,all modernist notions of truth, transparency, and progressare inadequate for marking the increasingly complex and feverish directions and speedswe take within them. Layer upon layer, the drawings of "Data and Distribution" are composites of emergent yet indererminate spacesthat form a hyper-consumerist matrix. Tiaces of lines and trajectories delineate imaginary territories. As the works develop, nodes of activity form organizational structures, composed of referents to both old and new technologies. Much of the sheetis left blank, allowing the areaof the drawing to play out a fantasy of efficiency and direction free from interruption. This show of activiry is all that remains in spacesthat have been cleared of all else. Taken together, these drawings render an imagined sysremof production, delivery and consumption againsta forgotten architecturalbackdrop that is by turns the blueprint, representation,and archeologyof globalism.
B o R N r N s AN D rE G o,
19 6 8 ; l lvr s
IN Los ANGELES.
All drawingsarepenciland acrylicon paper Distribution #2,2000 30 x 22 in. (76.2x 55.9 cm) Distribution #4,2000 30 x 22 in. (76.2x 55.9 cm) Distribution #6,2000 30 x 22 in. (76.2x 55.9cm) Distribution #9,2000 30 x2 2in . (76 . 2x 55. 9c m ) Scatter#1,2001 60 x 40 in. (1J2.4x 101.6 cm) Scatter#3,2001 60 x 40 in. (152.4x 101.6 cm)