Ornamental Types focuses on the intersection of two historically different stereotypical perceptions; the role of natural environment as ornamental and the stereotypical architectural binary of ornament versus structure, as a remnant of Modernism.
By appropriating texts and images that refer to encyclopaedic knowledge and classification systems, such as classification text of Chinese Ornamental Birds and drawings from an encyclopaedia of typographic clichés, and inserting them as a new composition of partly transparent and partly opaque vinyl prints into the existing architectural structure of the Conservatorium, Ornamental Types makes direct references to Modernist forms, aiming at the reconsideration of systems of classification, as well as at the re-evaluation of the relation between natural environment and built environment.
The narrative of this work is intended to be of a transformative nature, largely depending on the human gesture. Because of its transparency, the narrative expands to the functional spaces of the museum. Through the sliding of the windows and the adjustment to the weather conditions, the given narrative opens up to a multiplication of possibilities for the production of new meanings.
