Big Bambú
Starn's Beacon studio, former Tallix foundry, Beacon, NY


In September 2008, the Starns took over the former Tallix Foundry in Beacon, New York (50 foot high ceilings by 320-foot long by 65 foot wide), and the construction of Big Bambú immediately started.
This artwork, in the realm of architecture and performance, starts as a massive tower created from lashed together bamboo poles and brings into space representations of complexity and chaos. At its pinnacle, the continually evolving architecture being built from within (no outside scaffolding or support) will cantilever out as far as the bamboo poles network allows, and then will bridge down to the floor. At this point the first tower will be dismantled pole by pole and carried through the structure and down to create another monumental tower and then on again, walking down the 320 feet space, almost like a Slinky and then back again. Big Bambú will evolve through the continuous rebuilding and rethinking of the structure at all times.

 
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Videos


 


The Starns are directing 8 to 15 rock climbers at a time, who are assembling the structure’s vernacular network in an ongoing action. The tower represents the concepts of self-organization, adaptation and the interconnectedness of all things.
Big Bambú is connotative of an autonomous, spontaneous, self-governing, disorganized network responding to itself to better navigate the environment. “It represents me- in that I am who I was, and, I am completely different than I was when I was a little boy.” Doug Starn writes.
The Starns are currently developing a tentative exhibition project focusing on Big Bambú, with the Detroit Institute of Arts for the fall of 2011. The visuals on this Website will be updated as we get the chance, showing the continuous evolution of the artwork and its evolving incarnation.


 

Photographic artworks
 

Big Bambú at the Starn Studio, from 2008 to present.
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Recent Reviews
New York Times, April 23, 2010 (video)
New York Times, April 22, 2010
Sette / Corriere Della Sera, April 22, 2010
New York Times, February 11, 2010
The World of Interiors, November 2009

Architectural Record, November 2009
The Moment, 2009
Exposures, Aperture 2009

NILEport, June, 2009

Fine Art Magazine, April, 2009
New York Times Magazine, March 29, 2009
Vernissage TV, Talk / part 1/2, April 9
Vernissage TV, Talk / part 2/2, April 10
Vernissage TV, March 8, 2009
MAYKR, December 14, 2008
New Space, New Focus at Art Miami, December 3, 2008
 

 


Metropolitan Museum of Art: Big Bambú on the roof

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