For the latest exhibition on the Zwirner-backed digital art marketplace, Platform, multidisciplinary design firm Charlap Hyman & Herrero (CHH) has curated “IN RUINS,” a unique digital-meets-physical exhibition that explores the haunting allure of decay through a narrative weaving together art, design, architecture, and history. The project prompted the introduction of a number of new and notable artists to Platform, including Richard Serra, Carlo Mollino, Enzo Mari, and Seth Cameron.
CHH Designs a Floating Digital Gallery for “In Ruins”
After curating a series of successful physical exhibitions like the “House for the Inhabitant Who Refused to Participate” at Tina Kim Gallery in 2022 and “Widows Walk” at Winter Street Gallery in 2023, CHH has now entered the digital exhibition space. For this show, the architecture and design firm created an illusory, floating digital gallery to house the exhibition’s 26 artworks in a landscape that denotes the passage of time. The virtual structure contains three major elements: a silver sphere representing the digital, a square, cast concrete gallery that appears to float over a cement pad to represent the future, and the inverse of this—a sunken, cast concrete pit—to represent the past. Displayed within the “future” and “past” galleries is a collection of works that hail from various centuries and mediums including photography, drawing, painting, and sculpture.
“In Ruins,” photo by Eric Petschek, courtesy of CHH and Platform.
The genesis of the show is rooted in the architecture of James Wines, the iconic American artist-turned-architect who founded the storied environmental design practice, SITE, in 1970. Fascinated by his designs for the BEST Products stores, each of which appeared to be in demolition or ruin, CHH met with Wines at his home and studio to explore this topic. Here, the curatorial team comprised of Adam Charlap-Hyman, Chelsey Mitchell, and Andre Herrero discovered the invitation for SITE’s “Ghost Parking Lot” exhibition at the National Shopping Centers in Hamden, Connecticut in 1977: an eerie memorial made up of a series of vintage cars that had been poured over with asphalt. An architectural model of the exhibition itself, the invitation pulled together the multidisciplinarity that CHH sought to celebrate.
Enzo Mari and Richard Serra Rendered Digitally
“In Ruins,” photo by Eric Petschek, courtesy of CHH and Platform.
A 1965 reproduction of an architectural column etching by Giovanni Battista Piranesi answers the same call. An esteemed architect of the 18th century renowned for his unparalleled etchings of Rome, Piranesi captivated audiences using inventive plays on scale and perspective. Standing at a staggering 10 feet high, the print depicts Roman emperor Trajan’s victories against the Dacians. In the same vein, a sculptural tray by Italian modern artist and industrial designer, Mari, melds these two fields through an interesting play on the steel I-beam.
Alongside Mari’s 1958 Putrella Tray, which sits atop a concrete column in the sunken “past” gallery, four wall works by the late Serra are suspended. Intended to evoke the gravitational weight of three-dimensional sculptures, the geometric Painstik and silica works on handmade paper hail from the artist’s “Equal” and “Horizontal Reversals” series. Fortuitously, these pieces were selected for “IN RUINS” ahead of the renowned sculptor’s recent passing.
“In Ruins,” photo by Eric Petschek, courtesy of CHH and Platform.
To celebrate the launch of the digital exhibition, Platform gathered a number of pieces for physical display in the former sculpture studio of Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney. Housed within the New York Studio School in the heart of Greenwich Village, the double-height space is adorned with an impressive plaster fireplace and ceiling by the late decorative artist, designer, and muralist, Robert Winthrop Chanler. His elaborate and ornamental compositions often featured fantastical avian, jungle, and aquatic creatures, which can be seen in the 1924 gilt and gesso panel, Stag Attacked by Dogs, that appears in the digital show. Intended as a self-portrait, the work represents Winthrop Chanler during his financially disastrous divorce. As an homage to the late artist, CHH adorned the inner walls of the digital exhibition’s “future” gallery with a flame motif inspired by his Whitney fireplace.
CHH and Platform Push the Boundaries of the Digital Art Experience
As the conversation around digital art continues to evolve, there’s something to be said for the layered experience “IN RUINS” provides. “We were quite motivated to push the confines and parameters of a digital art experience,” said CHH cofounder, Adam Charlap-Hyman. “Bringing together the physical show, the digital gallery, and the web page on Platform creates a reality of its own, which feels like an authentic experience of this art.” Just as the curation succeeds in celebrating artwork at the intersection of creative disciplines, its presentation is a triumph in the same regard. Through the process of bridging the digital and physical experience of art, CHH has demonstrated the poignancy of combining media and modes of working to produce a uniquely cohesive viewer experience.
“In Ruins,” photo by Eric Petschek, courtesy of CHH and Platform.
