Edited by Lawrence Rinder, Foreword by UC Berkeley Chancellor Nicholas B. Dirks, Texts by Lawrence Rinder, Sabrina Dalla Valle, Padma Maitland, Spyros Papapetros, Lisa Robertson, and Rebecca Solnit.
Published in conjunction with BAMPFA’s inaugural exhibition in its landmark new building designed by Diller Scofidio + Renfro, Architecture of Life explores the ways that architecture—as concept, metaphor, and practice—illuminates various aspects of life experience: the nature of the self and psyche, the fundamental structures of reality, and the power of the imagination to reshape our world. The sweeping exhibition comprises over 150 works of art in a wide range of media, as well as scientific illustrations and architectural drawings and models, all of which are reproduced in full color in the catalog. International in scope, Architecture of Life presents work by artists Yuri Ancarani, George Ault, Lee Bontecou, Louise Bourgeois, Marcel Duchamp, Léon Ferrari, Suzan Frecon, Trenton Doyle Hancock, Johannes Itten, Kimsooja, Fernand Léger, Tomás Saraceno; architects Diller Scofidio + Renfro, Buckminster Fuller, Frederick Kiesler, Toyo Ito, Lebbeus Woods; scientists Wilson Bentley, Santiago Ramón y Cajal, Viktor Schauberger; and composer Iannis Xenakis, among many others. The exhibition also includes Mbuti barkcloth drawings, Pomo baskets, Micronesian navigational charts, Tibetan meditation mandalas, and tantric drawings from Rajasthan. Radically interdisciplinary, Architecture of Life juxtaposes visually exquisite, rarely seen works in ways that suggest new connections and meanings.
Published in conjunction with the exhibition Architecture of Life, on view at the UC Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive from January 31 to May 29, 2016.