POP: Protocols, Obsessions, Positions

POP: Protocols, Obsessions, Positions investigated what constitutes a position in architecture today and how that might be generated through the architect’s drawing. This exhibition presented 30 original drawings of the Storefront gallery space at 97 Kenmare Street by an international group of architects asked to go “from protocols, to obsessions, to positions.”

As an image based on codes and systems of representation that establish a space of legibility between inherited and new forms, the architectural drawing tends to operate either as a technical tool of communication based on protocols and codes or in a diametrically opposed spectrum as an artistic device completely detached from the constraints of architectural practice. While one end of the spectrum is overcharged by the need to communicate, the complex or mysterious beauty of illegibility haunts the other. While protocols engage with a disciplinary temporality and obsessions are usually atemporal, positions address timely, current issues beyond those typically addressed in the discipline of architecture or an architect’s body of work.

POP was Storefront’s second annual architectural drawing show aiming to contribute and transform our understanding of architectural drawings in the 21st century. The drawings on display were auctioned online during the exhibition. Proceeds directly support Storefront’s exhibitions and programs.

The opening reception of POP was sponsored by Grolsch.