Personally anticipating quite a lot from this lecture as I really enjoy Carmody Groarke’s work and without any doubt, I wasn’t alone in the crowd, I both enjoyed and was in some cases deceived. I think there may have been some issues that were addressed only partially and when asked to elaborate more on these, the answers perhaps weren’t as deep as one would wish or as complete as one would expect. Nevertheless this is not to diminish or somehow undermine the quality of the work of this studio. In particular the works surrounding the events of the 7th of July in London were of interest, not only because of its political issues that the monuments may raise, but also its potential connection to our own projects surrounding the theme of memory and tombs that we explored as a class in our second semester of our first year. In the case of Carmody Groarke’s work, the subject is of course much more real and sensitive, which made it so much more problematic and worth discussing during the Q&A at the end of the lecture, but even after the lecture itself. Other works, more temporary structures have also been very interesting to see more in detail and get a personal explanation of the process of designing and even constructing them. Perhaps it was especially insightful to see how the studio is working with time in mind, in some of its projects, and seeing how it is involved in the details of construction was also very enriching. We eventually had the chance to even get accompanied by Andy Groarke on our field trip to EUR the next day, and thus had the opportunity to listen to some of his own personal analytical views of the structures that we have visited that day, while giving the chance to some of us of talking to him in person while travelling from one location to the next.
(all photos credit to Oonagh Davis)
by Matej Dlabal