Exhibition

  • Folly/Function 2018: RRRolling Stones
    The Architectural League of New York
    Collaborator
    Socrates Sculpture Park, Long Island City
    Jul 12, 2018 to Dec 31, 2018
  • GRANTEE
    Socrates Sculpture Park
    GRANT YEAR
    2017

HANNAH (Leslie Lok and Sasa Zivkovic), Folly/Function 2018: RRRolling Stones, Socrates Sculpture Park, Long Island City, NY. Photo: Zachary Tyler Newton.

RRRolling Stones exploits the ergonomics of a functional chair. Responding to the 2018 competition’s challenge to develop a new public seating concept for the waterfront park, HANNAH designed the durable and movable seating for all-season use. Each seat is 3D-printed with concrete, creating a sturdy but playful form that encourages creative interaction. Individual seats may be rotated to reveal variable seating profiles or configured in imaginative arrangements based on preference and need: linear benches of various lengths; in small clusters; or as solitary seats dotting the landscape. This versatility and functionality reflects the Park’s spirit, complementing Socrates’s diverse audience and the multiplicity of activities it hosts.

HANNAH is an experimental design practice for speculative and built projects across scales, addressing subjects of architecture and urbanism. The office, led by Leslie Lok and Sasa Zivkovic, focuses on contemporary building practices and utilizes specialized novel material and fabrication methods. HANNAH’s object of inquiry is material, process, and construction. HANNAH misuses technology, prints mischief, and aims to coconstruct new architectural narratives that push disciplinary boundaries.

John Hatfield is the executive director of Socrates Sculpture Park. Previous to Socrates, he worked for 17 years at the internationally acclaimed New Museum of Contemporary Art. There, he served in the capacity of deputy director since 2008.. As its deputy director, Hatfield contributed to the development and execution of strategic planning in all areas of the museum. In addition to his tenure there, Hatfield served as assistant vice-president for memorial, cultural, and civic programs at the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation, where he worked on the 9/11 memorial design competition, selection process, and cultural planning. Additionally, he held positions at the World Financial Center’s Arts and Events Program; consulted on public art projects and architecture; worked for a modern and contemporary art gallery; was a visiting critic at Yale School of Architecture, and served on Percent for Art panels.

Rosalie Genevro is the executive director of The Architectural League of New York.  For over 20 years, she has pursued its mission—to nurture excellence and engagement in architecture, design and urbanism—through innovation in live events, exhibitions, and publications. Genevro has conceived and developed projects that have mobilized the expertise of the League's international network of architects and designers towards applied projects in the public interest, including Vacant LotsNew Schools for New YorkThe Productive ParkEnvisioning East New York, and Arverne: Housing on the Edge; initiated and directed major traveling exhibitions, including Renzo Piano Building Workshop: Selected ProjectsTen Shades of Green, and Urban Life: Housing in the Contemporary City; and originated the online projects Worldview Cities and Urban Omnibus. Earlier in her career, Genevro was research director of Advisory Services for Better Housing, and published research on the early years of the NYC Housing Authority.

Anne Rieselbach has been program director at The Architectural League since 1986. Rieselbach organizes many of the League's lectures and symposia, and has curated exhibitions of contemporary and historic architecture. For the past thirty years she has directed the Architectural League Prize for Young Architects + Designers and the Emerging Voices series.  The League Prize, a nationwide competition, lecture series, exhibition, and for the past 13 years, catalogue, spotlights work by talented young architects ten years or less out of school. Emerging Voices, chosen through an invited competition, brings outstanding mid career architects to New York to present their work.

Jess Wilcox, who oversees the Folly program, joined Socrates as director of exhibitions in 2016. From 2011 to 2015, she was programs coordinator at the Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art at the Brooklyn Museum, where she organized public programs and artworks. She also co-curated Agitprop!, an exhibition of historical and contemporary art. She has curated projects and exhibitions at a variety of art spaces, including Abrons Art Center, the International Studio and Curatorial Program, Performa, SculptureCenter, and Storm King Art Center, among others. She holds a BA from Barnard College and an MA from the Center for Curatorial Studies, Bard College.

Chris Zirbes joined Socrates as studio and facilities manager in 2015, after more than 10 years in construction and fabrication. Prior to working at Socrates he worked in various architectural metalwork companies in NYC, most recently as a metal fabricator for the Guggenheim Museum. His artwork has been shown at the Pratt Institute, Hunter College, Crane Arts, and Salem Art Works. He has been awarded fellowships from Salem Art Works (2012) and the Vermont Studio Center (2015). He received his BFA in sculpture from Pratt in 2006 and a post-baccalaureate certificate from Tyler School of Art in 2011.

Socrates Sculpture Park is the only site in New York City dedicated to providing artists with opportunities to envision, realize, and exhibit large-scale sculpture and multi-media installations in a unique outdoor environment that encourages strong interaction between artists, artworks, and the public. The Park's existence is based on the belief that reclamation, revitalization and creative expression are essential to the survival, humanity, and improvement of our urban environment. Our mission dates back to the Park's early transformation: Socrates was once an abandoned landfill and illegal dumpsite until 1986, when a group of artists and community members, led by visionary sculptor Mark di Suvero, turned its five waterfront acres into an open studio and exhibition space for artists and a neighborhood park for local residents. Today, Socrates Sculpture Park is a thriving contemporary art space in the most ethnically and culturally diverse county in the US: Queens.

The Architectural League of New York nurtures excellence in architecture, design, and urbanism, and stimulates thinking and debate about the critical design and building issues of our time. As a vital, independent forum for architecture and its allied disciplines, the League helps create a more beautiful, vibrant, innovative, and sustainable future.