A hairy process
By Jessica Warren
Jan. 28, 2004 9:00 p.m.
Modern architecture doesn’t have to resemble the
minimalist décor of the W Hotel in Westwood, as Jason Payne
and Heather Roberge well know. Instead of decorating a room with
nothing but a coffee table, these two artists take an
unconventional approach, mixing various shapes and colors straight
out of Dr. Seuss’s world with the added dimension of
hair.
Partners in architecture since 1998, Payne and Roberge are
currently members within the Department of Architecture and Urban
Design at UCLA. Their architectural exhibition
“HairStyle,” which demonstrates their obsession with
hair, will be on display in Perloff Gallery from Jan. 29 through
Feb. 27.
“What (Roberge and I) noticed a couple of years back was
that a lot of our work, for whatever reason, resembled hair,”
said Payne. “Not in terms of hair growing off buildings, but
they’re often incorporated in the way we draw and build
models.”
The exhibit will feature four main projects, including
“Man-o-war,” which also happens to be the only one
designed specifically for the display. This toupee-like mat of
hanging monofilament derives from its striking resemblance to the
hanging tentacles of the Portuguese Man-o-war.
“We call it the “˜Man-o-war’ because by
combining netting and hair-like threads, it’s going to be a
swollen belly with a lot of strings hanging from it,” said
Payne. “It will create a kind of atmospheric effect almost
like a greenish yellow cloud in the room.”
Added Roberge, “It’s like a tapestry or a carpet
where all of the yarn elongated on it will look like carpet on the
ceiling.”
Another project, “Urban Filament, Complex Blooms,”
is a highly intricate, geometric maze grafted into the city of
Berlin. The complex lines resemble strands of hair over the city.
“Internal Expansion” and “Branching
Urbanism” round out the exhibition.
“The purpose of the show is to help put together a
continuous thread that has to do with the sensibility that
we’ve been trying to develop, which is a hirsute
sensibility,” said Payne.
Payne and Roberge are not only grateful for having the
opportunity to showcase examples of their talent at the university,
but very excited to hopefully expand the imagination of students in
the department and give them as much access as possible to pursue
their own ideas.
“Our initial goal (for the exhibit) was to have everything
produced here at UCLA in our department, even the stuff
that’s really high-tech,” said Payne. “(For the
most part), we were able to do that, which we’re pretty happy
about because it sends a message to the student body that if you
like what you see, you can produce all of it here.”
In today’s digital age of computer graphics and fancy
machinery, architects can now fashion ideas they would never have
been able to produce before. But this duo deviates once again from
the traditional creation of architecture in the method in which
they mix techniques.
“We actually aren’t interested in confining
ourselves to what the technology produces,” said Payne.
“In other words, we’re totally committed to
old-fashion, low-tech, hand-constructed stuff. The work is half
high-end digital stuff and the half low-end, like fishing line
wrapped around nails.”
Each aspect of the exhibition is also from Payne and
Roberge’s architectural company GNUFORM (pronounced
new-form). The name, however odd it may seem, fits in perfectly
with their projects and philosophy.
“Most of our work is a bit strange … so that’s why
we got the name,” said Payne.
“HairStyle” is free to the public. For more
information, please call (310) 267-4704.
