Second presentation from our MoMA unit...featuring work by Seher Shah and Rirkrit Tirabanija

1. Seher Shah

2. How is Power related to Architectural
Spaces?
• Brianna: Over time, new buildings have gotten classier…they
look more modern, nice. That smooth and sharp design
conveys a sense that you have to have $$$ to live there.
• Taeron: The bigger the castle/temple, the more power you
have. Like the Hagia Sofia (in Istanbul).
• Joie: People tend to furnish their homes with plants and fancy
stuff, if you have those plants mounted on the outside, it
conveys a sense of wealth and power….because they can afford
someone to maintain it.
• Kenny: Size and MATERIAL of building conveys a sense of
power and dominance.
• Kai: So if you see a OLDER building…does that mean it can’t be
related to wealth/power or Opulence

3. How is Power related to Architectural
Spaces?
• Arvin: “Pretty” architecture shows off like it has power and
money (trump hotel). You can tell by the design.
– Zenzeee: When a building has bigger windows, bigger beds,
special buttons that do cool things (amenities)
– Nyle: this relates to arguments about gentrification…there’s a fear
of things changing/renovating…because if something “looks
fancy” there’s a concern that you can’t afford it.
– Ardi: This is kinda like our school compared to others in our
building. We got a ceiling design, filtered water, etc.
• Jakara: Looks can be deceiving…just because it looks fancy or
powerful doesn’t mean it actually is. Salt and sugar are
DIFFERENT!
• Justin: Ancient Greeks using ionic columns to convey power.
– Kozak: This is scene in Classical revival arch in America. Also
obelisks from ancient Egypt.

4. Seher ShahInterior Courtyard 2
2007, Graphite pencil on white,
medium weight, wove paper
From the Jihad Pop series

5. Seher Shah
From the Jihad Pop series
Having lived multinationally, between Pakistan, the UK, Belgium, and the US,
Shah has absorbed more perspective than most. Her skills brought her to the
Rhode Island School of Design and she currently lives in Brooklyn, NY.
Combining that experience with her dazzling aesthetic sensibility and
draftsmanship, Shah produces drawings that are as smart and relevant as
they are beautiful.

6. Seher Shah
Jean: Seems very meticulous, thinking about different pressures of
the graphite she uses.
Joie: She doesn’t know exactly where certain things will go in
drawings, but she ‘moves’ with the work.
Kevin: She knows DA’ limit of how much she can put into her
work before she needs to take a break.
-Tots: it’s almost like her designs could get a bit
repetitive…and she needs to refresh.
Rasha: at First, I thought her artwork would be strictly digital…but
it’s crazy to see that she’s DRAWING this type of meticulous work.
Ruhith: Everything she makes seems pre-meditated, it’s mapped out
in her head. Sitting on top of the paper, she’s able to really BE in the
work.
JOIE 2: JUST GOTTA ADD ON: I’m not sure if she thinks her work is
going to get repetitive, but she doesn’t want to get lost in the same
idea…but to have some variety in her work.

7. Seher Shah
Ardi: She seems chilled out about her work. The work is complex
and classy.
Richard: She sounds like a narrator
Raph: Her voice portrays her art in a way…her work doesn’t
have color…just black, gray, white.
Zenzee: I disagree…she seems quite relaxed…but she doesn’t
have a specific plan, she works on her art based on her body and
emotions as she’s sitting on the paper.
Arvin: Just using blacks and whites (and grays!) shows a lot of
contrast.her work shows some kind of story.
-kozak: It shows a TREMENDOUS amount of restraint and
discipline as an artist to use such colors.
Guzzy: She focuses on the simplicity…the lack of color shows
her as an artist, as an observer of the world.
Jakara:”she wants to have a new set of eyes when she looks at
things”

8. Seher Shah
Jihad Pop Progression 4 - Interior Courtyard 1. 2006
The title of the show, Jihad Pop engages with
two loaded words. They are words that have been loaded by the media to
imply that Muslims are extremists and Americans are facile.
The black cube (the holy Kaaba) unfolds into a cross; Islamic ornamentation
takes on the characteristics of animation or graffiti; architectural traditions
destroy each other and reform; childhood snapshots get confused with
fairytale – until Shah’s migratory drawings collect her memory into collective
symbols familiar to everyone and to none.

9. Seher Shah
Untitled from The Black Star
2007
One from a series of 12
archival giclee prints

10. Untitled from The Black Star
2007
One from a series of 12
archival giclee prints
Seher Shah

11. Seher Shah
Untitled from The Black Star
2007
One from a series of 12
archival giclee prints

12. Seher Shah
Untitled from The Black Star
2007
One from a series of 12
archival giclee prints

13. Seher Shah
Untitled from The Black Star
2007
One from a series of 12
archival giclee prints

14. Seher Shah
The Black Star
2007
series of 12

15. Seher ShahOver the past eight years, the
Pakistani-born, New York-based
artist Seher Shah has taken
inspiration from her training in
architecture, combining real and
imagined buildings with
autobiographically resonant
motifs in her large, Escheresque
drawings. Her photographic
collages of the same period have
followed a similar logic, blending
found images of people and
landscapes with digitally
introduced grids, shapes, and
structures.

16. Seher Shah “My drawings explore
the power dynamics of
amphitheaters, civic
buildings, mortuary
architecture, and large-
scale housing projects by
removing hierarchy
through specific
methods of rendering.
These events and objects
are simultaneously
fascinating and
perplexing because they
show the power
struggles and aspirations
of the context in which
they are located.”

17. What Social
issue(s) is this
artist dealing
with? How does
she raise these
issues?
• .
• .
• .

18. Rirkrit Tiravanija
Thai, born Argentina
1961
untitled (the days of
this society is
numbered /
December 7, 2012)
2014.
Synthetic polymer
paint and newspaper
on linen

19. Rirkrit Tiravanija Thai, born Argentina 1961
untitled (the days of this
society is numbered /
December 7, 2012)
2014.
Synthetic polymer paint and
newspaper on linen
This piece features the
mistranslated quote from Guy
Debord (a French Marxist
from the 1900s), stenciled
across a grid of Thai magazine
pages that were published on
the date of the 85th birthday
of King of Thailand, Bhumibol
Adulyadej, who has been on
the throne since 1946.

20. Rirkrit Tiravanija
Born in Argentina in 1961, Tiravanija
is a contemporary artist focusing on
social installations that bring people
together, such as group meals,
readings, etc.
His earlier works involved cooking
meals for gallery visitors and his best
known series, pad thai, had him
cooking meals for gallery visitors.
Tiravanija is also a curator and has
organized international shows with
other like-minded artists focusing on
the ideas of social engagement.

21. Rirkrit
Tiravanija
Demonstration
Drawings
2009

22. Rirkrit Tiravanija
Untitled (Free), 1992
In 1992, Rirkrit Tiravanija created an exhibition entitled Untitled (Free) at
303 Gallery in New York. The installation consisted of the artist
converting the gallery into a kitchen where he served rice and Thai curry
for free, was recreated at MoMA in 2007.
Pad Thai, 1990

23. Rirkrit Tiravanija
”[with my art] It
is not what you
see that is
important but
what takes
place between
people.”

24. What Social
issue(s) is this
artist dealing
with? How does
he raise these
issues?
• .
• .
• .

26. “I used to come home very late at night and watch TV to forget the
daily specials before I’d work on any art. I’d scan the channels.
There’s really not much to see. Everything boiled down to the same
low level of meaninglessness.
Everything was a fragment of a total spectacle: the most horrific
news next to the most glamorous gold ring next to the most
glamorous celebrity next to cooking oil. News, events, fiction, data,
scandals, starving children, etc., are all collapsed into a level of
historical inaction- a dark landscape, sterile, meaninglessness…”
Félix González-Torres
Do Now:
What does this quote mean to you?