Starting From… The Bubble
A selection of objects by Sina Najafi
The bubble is a wonder of surface tension. In its architectural interpretation, the bubble can be understood as a feat of engineering or as a metaphor for an enclosed hermetic environment. As such, the bubble emerges, in the architect Cedric Price’s words, “in any shape or any size” as a powerful symbol of the future, or becomes synonymous with the condition of isolation at the level of the individual, the sealed building, or in the planning of self-sustaining neighbourhoods, towns, or cities.
Filmed in the CCA’s Prints and Drawings vault, Sina Najafi describes some of the research and objects planned for exhibition, including work by Cedric Price, James Stirling, and Gordon Matta-Clark.
Snow globe depicting the Guggenheim Museum, New York. Germany, 1995. CCA. NA44.W949.25 G6 (ID:96-F1)
Samuel H. Gottscho, photographer. Partial view of the Perisphere, New York World’s Fair, 1939. CCA. PH1979:0474:026
Ant Farm. Inflatocookbook, 2nd edition (San Francisco: Ant Farm, 1973). CCA. NA44.A627.A35 1973
Alison Margaret Smithson, draughtsman and architect. Peter Smithson, architect. Bread House: plans, November 1957. CCA. DR1995:0056
Cedric Price. Generator: “THE SYMBOL - any size - only one shape”. Between 1976 and 1979. Cedric Price fonds, CCA. DR1995:0280:651:005:002
Johannes Kepler. Ioannis Keppleri Harmonices mundi libri V. Linz: Sumptibus Godofredi Tampachii, 1619. CCA. W11292
Marshall McLuhan. Distant early warning [game], 1969. CCA. HD30.26.M35 1969
Tail end of LZ 126 leaving the hangar, 1923. Unknown photographer. Unnumbered plate from LZ 126 20 Original photographien vom Amerika Luftschiff (Friedrichshafen am Bodensee: Luftschiffbau Zeppelin G.M.b.H., 1925). PH1985:0234:018
Sina Najafi developed these ideas and this selection of objects as part of his research in our Collection for the Cabinet “Bubbles” issue. Najafi’s selection was displayed in our hall cases under the title Starting From… The Bubble in 2009.
