Exhibit Review: The Glue Factory

On Friday, I attended the opening of a new exhibit at I-Space, The Glue Factory. On display was documentation of peoples' fears.

Curated by Rashmi Ramaswamy and Mike Newman of Shed Studio and Helen Slade, all of whom are part of The Museum of Contemporary Phenomenon, this show is the culmination of a number of studies and surveys that began with an interactive method for community members to state their fears in a gallery exhibit called "What Do You Fear?/House of Fear". Ms. Ramaswamy was surprised to find the majority of fears surrounding issues of growing old: alone, without money, unable to take care of one's self, degradation of mental and physical capacities. "Especially since, at the time, the major news headlines were about global issues such as the Afghan and Iraq wars and the fight on terrorism. The fears were rather selfish considering the issues being broadcast in the news."

Which is what makes The Glue Factory so well-timed today; health care and domestic issues are the big stories of the day. I've said before, it's good to see architects take on social issues. We're so often focused on the built environment, the needs of the client and budgetary constraints that we never consider the social impact we may be making (or most often, the social impact we're not making).

The Glue Factory is on display on the 2nd floor of the I-Space gallery and runs through October 10th.