Front view

For our MCA show, I was asked by the curator to head a design committe to design and build screening rooms to show the video work in the show. Fellow students Sharon Levy, Steven Remington, and I worked with five filmmakers in our program to design spaces to show their work. During our design process, I gravitated towards Zerek Kemp'f smoke signals project (zerekkempf.com/smoke.htm), and designed this screening space in conversation with him. The experience was a rich one in many ways, particularly the chance to work closely with my fellow program-mates and working in the beautiful MCA space, and it is something that would not have happened without the impetus of Rachel Teagle's request.

Here is the label text that was on the wall next to my piece:

Name: Robert Twomey. (Washington, DC, 1979).
Title: Chimney viewing space.
Year: 2005.
Media: mixed media.
Dimensions: 5' x 5' x 9'.

Extended label text:

This sculpture was developed specifically to show Zerek and Chip's 'Smoke Signal' piece, as a conceptual and aesthetic reaction to that work. The interior space of the chimney is sized to allow a few viewers at a time, to create a temporary intimacy in the semi-enclosed space. Visually and materially, the form is a reaction to the aesthetic evident in the video piece, and to the etherial nature of the smoke signals themselves.