Author Description

Verlag Silke Schreiber, Munich, 2004. Catalogue published to accompany the exhibition tour Of Lucy Orta's work in the US. Edited by Lucy Orta and Courtenay Smith; introduction by Margaret Miller; essays by Andrew Patrizio and Bradley Quinn; Interview by Jade Dellinger. Color photography throughout. Includes exhibitions and projects listing and bibliography. [From back cover] In a body of work spanning more than a decade, visual artist Lucy Orta has created a unique genre that transcends the denominations of fashion, architecture and traditional art practice. She discusses, debates and rethinks the traditional principles of social structures, introducing new ideas that have a profound engagement with society, urban planning, cultural heritage and political and ecological policies. Her work reveals the extent to which perceptions of space play a crucial role in the construction of urban identity, whether it is condensed and compressed to serve individual needs or expanded to encompass the whole of society. Body Architecture explores Lucy Orta's most important structures to date, including Connector Mobile Village, in conjunction with a traveling exhibition of her work in the United States initiated by the Contemporary Art Museum at the University of South Florida curated by Margaret Miller and Jade Dellinger and supported by a grant from the Andy Warhol Foundation, New York. This creative project highlights her most emblematic projects, Refuge Wear and Body Architecture, which she began working on in 1992, and covers her numerous Nexus Architecture inteventions, such as the one for the 1997 Johannesburg Biennale and Life Nexus Village Fete, rhizome projects that contribute to the complex interweave of a unique body of work.