Publisher: N Editions, ISBN: 9781999744809, Author: Richard Goodwin, Format: Softcover, 280 x 180 mm, 52pp
Fables for the Drone Age is both an exhibition catalogue and a stand-alone artefact. Made up only photos and a fold out print, this work documents an exhibition by Australian artist and architect Richard Goodwin held at the London's Betts Project in July 2017.
Fables for the Drone Age features 14 maquettes and small sculptures, spanning three decades of Goodwin’s practice. Constructed of plastic model parts of airplanes, motorcycles, and helicopters, combined with wood, metal, and primer paint, each is a proposition for an intervention in the city. Goodwin’s delicate yet aggressive maquettes suggest an event in action, a single frame of a film or the painful process of transformation.
Using Gordon Matta-Clark’s iconic artist book Splitting as a model, the book features striking photography by Anthony Browell and text vignettes by Goodwin and David Burns. The result is a glimpse into the atmosphere of Goodwin’s iconic Sydney studio; a place where experimentation, performance, and architecture collapse into something entirely unexpected.
Goodwin’s award-winning 40-year practice spans architecture, sculpture, performance, drawing, and painting. His work probes the built environment to reveal uncanny assemblages and moments of spatial porosity. Operating in the same domain as Lebbeus Woods, Vito Acconci or Chris Burden, Goodwin’s practice operates fluidly in the contested territory between architecture and art.