Curator’s Statement
The subjects of Thomas Demand’s photographic works Farm 56 and Farm 88 are models of the River building created at the SANAA office during the design process. The works convey the focus of the designers during the process of concept to realization, the multiple possibilities of design, and the role of the model as a communication tool in the SANAA studio. The viewer is able to imagine SANAA’s creative processes and, at the same time, see, and easily grasp the overall design of this building.
About the Collaboration
“Fascinated by the architecture and the vision it embodies, my contribution tries to show the richness of the creative process and the eminent role modeling played in the design of the building in which the work
is installed. I hope I can support the idea behind the architectural ensemble to be a utopian place in which people become aware of the beauty and spirit of the surrounding and the thoughtfulness and dedication of the people who created the Grace Farms Foundation.”
– Thomas Demand
Curator’s Statement
Teresita Fernández’s Double Glass River, which resembles an undulating galaxy, expands horizontally across the curved wall at the end of the Commons. The small glass cubes are mirrored, so that the shining reflection constantly alters depending on where the viewer is standing, which has the effect of the work as a whole appearing completely different from every angle. The resulting sense of fluid motion and of floating in nature is a clear response to and reflection of the River building.
About the Collaboration
“I was delighted to create a site-specific work in this incredible New Canaan rural landscape, framed by the undulating, shifting spaces created by SANAA. The effect created by SANAA and the thoughtful placement of artworks by Yuko Hasegawa connected perfectly with the kind of subtle, understated effect I hope to engage viewers in when experiencing my work.”
– Teresita Fernández
Curator’s Statement
When Beatriz Milhazes visited Grace Farms at its opening, she explored the various possibilities, including the interior of the River building. As dusk approached, warm light spilled out of the windows set into the long wall of the West Barn, offering a view of the wall on the opposite side of the corridor where doors led to rooms where various programs awaited visitors. If a painting were to be applied to this wall, people could experience the colors and patterns as they entered the building, while from the outside, it would appear as a series of colorful pictures each framed by a window. Such a work would invigorate the long, narrow barn, creating different appearances by day and night, and it was with this image in mind that it was decided to go ahead with the project.
About the Collaboration
“The four doors and the entrance of the hallway were the departure point for my drawing. These doors are the entrance for the rooms in which many community activities will happen, including educational programs. I decided to give a kind of different intensity to the lines, shapes, elements, composition, and colors in contrast to their ‘surroundings’ of the doorways. Each ‘surrounding’ of the doors has its own feeling and the compositions grow from the sides and meet each other. It is a kind of choreography of rhythms, colors, and patterns.”
– Beatriz Milhazes
Parting Friends
Farewell, my friends, I’m bound for Canaan,
I’m trav’ling through the wilderness;
Your company has been delightful,
You, who doth leave my mind distressed.
I go away, behind to leave you,
Perhaps never to meet again,
But if we never have the pleasure,
I hope we’ll meet on Canaan’s land.
Curator’s Statement
Going out of the building and walking a little way, the visitor encounters Susan Philipsz’s sound installation, New Canaan, beside a small pond in the woods. It is inspired by shape notes, a music notation that originated in Connecticut and was designed to facilitate choir singing amongst members of the public with no musical training. The song Parting Friends—selected from an anthology of 19th-century songs— has been divided into three parts, while it is the voice of the artist herself that travels across the pond. The melancholic song, the lyrics of which convey the singer’s desire to meet her loved one in Canaan, finds its way into the listener’s heart. It is a simple song, which anyone can sing, and yet is a powerful symbol of human encounters and separation.
Curator’s Statement
Mat for multidimensional prayers is one of only a handful of Olafur Eliasson’s textile works. The mat, which will be displayed throughout the week for meditative reflection in the Sanctuary, features a thick honeycomb weave with pronounced cavities, while the reverse has a rippled texture with deep crevices. The wool is sourced from Icelandic grey sheep, which were long unpopular because their colouration made them difficult to spot in the country’s rocky landscapes.
About the Collaboration
“From the beginning of my dialogue with the committed team at Grace Farms, I was struck by their ambitious aim of using art and architecture to cultivate a new site for spirituality and for different ways of being together. In creating my contributions to this novel community space, Mat for multidimensional prayers and Suspended rain (estimated completion date: 2016), I was inspired by the compelling spatial trajectories created for the site by SANAA. The artworks embody the special atmosphere and the trust in human interconnectivity and compassion practiced at Grace Farms.”
– Olafur Eliasson
