Gregor Kregar, New Structures, 2013, 11×3.5x5m, refuse timber, paint and 200 neon lights, Gow langsford Gallery, Auckland, NZ
In New Structures, Kregar utilized recycled materials, paint and recycled neon lights to transform the interior of Gow Langsford Gallery. By using recycled timber, the majority of which came from demolished leaky homes, Kregar explores the potential use of humble materials to take on architectonic forms. This motivation, as an artistic strategy, can be found throughout the development of installation practices ranging from Kurt Schwitters’ seminal work Merzbau (1933) to the contemporary work of Christo, Tadashi Kawamata, Maya Lin, Sarah Sze or Hector Zamora. Kregar’s work engages with the legacy of such artists by innovatively coupling the grand history of architectural logic with the detested debris of society to cunningly provoke the collective conscience.
White cube no longer, Kregar’s structure became a space of sanctuary, but also a functional space that visitors could experience as a place to walk through and socialize. New Structures is an exercise in architectural imagining with tangible application, which reconsiders waste for its real potential of spatial change.
Text adapted from “Floating ideas for falling cities”,Bruce Phillips, The Dream House Project catalogue, Te Tuhi, 2012