ARCHITECTURE of the UNDERBELLY
Architect Douglas Darden spoke of the underbelly when he wanted to describe all those troublesome things, experiences and emotions that we choose to deny, ignore, overlook or turn away from. But, he also made the case that it was that very disturbing phenomenon that made life vital, meaningful and real.
THESIS MEMO: The Underbelly
The controversy around MODERNISM still smolders. This is one of a series of articles or “memos” that may be helpful in understanding the issues at stake. Through them I articulate the ideas which help frame my work & world view.
World Trade Center
Pre 911
Fear of annihilation
Moby-Dick
Melville
Monsters like Godzilla - Born out of radioactive fears in the nuclear age.
Photo Montage-Bob Augustine
Picture of monster taken at theme park.
Darden suggests that we as a culture are fascinated with the dilemma of a particularly American, intense ambivalence toward western industrialization and technology - the promise of progressive events in a burgeoning America and the fears of apocalyptic annihilation.” (To be continued)
Melvilla:
Photo: Bob Augustine
Model: Douglas Darden
Melvilla was the design by Douglas Darden as a library and research center for the works of Herman Melville to be built on the site where Melville lived in New York City.
While I was Director of Exhibitions at the Boston Architectural Center, I curated an exhibit of the architect Douglas Darden’s work in the main gallery space on Newbury Street. I became especially interested in the themes of his work at that time. The exhibit was entitled Architecture of the Underbelly. I gave a lecture on his work and methods. The sources were limited to his recently reprinted book “Condemned Building,” and two A+U articles entitled; Melvilla, An Architect’s Reading of Moby-Dick; and Works in Architecture, Between Corpus and Corpse. I also referred to a short interview found in In/n Conversation. A filmed interview of Darden by Rob Miller also helped make clear Darden’s thesis. I made a video of the exhibit which was presented to Darden as he was too ill at the time to travel to the exhibit. ............ to be continued.
A Surprise Look at the Underbelly. On a bright, sunny summer day, I walked the packed piers of the Charlestown Navy Yard for a couple of hours, taking video of majestic vessels that had come from far corners, unfurling their huge white sails as their procession swung broad arcs through a sun drenched harbor. This was the day of the Tall Ships.….a grand spectacle indeed. I made my way down a plank to get a close-up view of some tied up ships. It was down there, on a bobbing boardwalk beneath it all, a few feet above the water, as I turned looking through my camcorder that I became aware of a totally different forgotten world, the underside of the pier; a dark, cool and shadowy land, crowded, overcrowded with green-black, wet, barnacled piers. Here was the heavy smell of the ocean…..quite literally the underbelly of the spectacle above. The two coexist. ............ to be continued.
