Christine Tarkowski‘s exhibition Administrative Bunker + Rook was conceived as a site-specific installation for the architecturally elaborate former home of the Art Center at the Del Prado Hotel at 5307 South Hyde Park Blvd. Tarkowski’s installation was conceived as a response to the eccentric interior structure of the Hyde Park Art Center. The Beaux-Arts gallery space confounded visitors’ expectations of a “white cube” modernist gallery stripped of ornament. A former hotel ballroom ornamented with architectural decoration the gallery was also used as a classroom, and shop floor for visitors and students alike. Tarkowski used images of a World War II-era concrete bunker and of a missile silo, and created a steel and tensile structure clad in digitally printed fabric.
Tarkowski often exhibits her work on the exterior of buildings as public art or in collaboration with architects. She has exhibited her work at MASS MoCA, at UCLA Gallery of Architecture and Urban Planning and the MCA. A catalogue with an essay by Hamza Walker is available for purchase ($10).
