April 10 – June 10, 2018
Mazes are a seductive species of architecture. They can combine the best qualities of close, intimate spaces and of expansive, ambulatory ones. A maze can be a machine for getting lost: an elusive, potentially intoxicating experience in the age of GPS-ubiquity. But mazes aren’t just fascinating as actual, three-dimensional spaces. The plan of a maze can be a dazzling abstraction, hinting at an intimate relationship to forms distinct from architecture. The immersive pleasures of mazes, their magnetic and subtly disorienting effects, can be discovered throughout a variety of disciplines and across a variety of media. The exploration of these pleasures, in everything from World War I-era navy “dazzle camouflage” to sixties Op Art and beyond, is fundamental to the work of Rafael de Cárdenas / Architecture at Large (RDC/AAL).
AMAZE is a collaborative installation by RDC/AAL and Sahra Motalebi: a serpentine cycle of four discrete spaces which buzz with optical and auditory patterns and illusions. At times lush, at others seemingly subdued, AMAZE bridges the otherworldly and the mundane, the drab and the hyper-chromatic. Each room of the labyrinthine installation stirs with life, woven with uncanny echoes, shifting perceptions, and hidden doorways that subtly scramble the coordinates of space and time. Throughout, RDC/AAL and Motalebi deploy graphic and sonic motifs which augment and intensify the overall space with a vibratory energy, creating a vivid experience of multi-sensory exploration.
RAFAEL DE CÁRDENAS / ARCHITECTURE AT LARGE is a multi-disciplinary design practice based in New York City. Founded by Rafael de Cárdenas in 2006, the studio is world- renowned for its residential and commercial interiors, temporary spaces, custom furniture, and objects. A monograph on the first ten years of Architecture at Large was published by Rizzoli in October 2017. architectureatlarge.com
SAHRA MOTALEBI is a visual artist, composer and vocalist. Motalebi’s work has been exhibited and performed internationally at The Kitchen, SculptureCenter, New Museum of Contemporary Art, Watermill Center, the Villa Empain, and MoMA PS1. Starting in 2016, Motalebi has presented an open-form opera called “Directory of Portrayals (from Rendering What Remains)” as a series of exhibitions, staged events and text. sahramotalebi.com
CADILLAC HOUSE is Cadillac’s first-ever brand experience center—a public space that brings Cadillac’s design sensibility and passion points to life through a range of dynamic, curated programming and events across the arts, fashion, entertainment and hospitality. Located in downtown New York City, Cadillac House represents the brand’s commitment to its new home and offers diverse experiences including a gallery, retail space, café and exhibition area for the brand’s vehicles—resulting in a venue with an ever-evolving point of view on subjects beyond the automotive industry. The Gallery is a blank space where Cadillac and Visionaire partner to curate non-traditional, interactive exhibitions with no boundaries, free and open to the public.
Visionaire Presents AMAZE a collaboration between Rafael de Cardenas / Architecture at Large and Sahra Motalebi
April 10 – June 10, 2018
THE GALLERY AT CADILLAC HOUSE
330 HUDSON STREET, NYC
#VISIONAIREAMAZE @VISIONAIREWORLD #CADILLACHOUSE @CADILLAC @ARCHITECTUREATLARGE @SAHRAMOTALEBI