Order and Distortion of Ornamentation/ Gallery of Modern Art (GoMA)

Sarah Steenson

In Loos’s famous writings on Ornament and Crime, he argues that ‘no ornament can be made today by anyone who lives on our cultural level.’ If we were to consider Loos’s theories, and make the assumption that indeed, ornament no longer has the same aesthetic value, how than can we revive the available ornamentation to reintroduce its meaning? Through rethinking the conventional approach to perceiving the hierarchy of ornament within the Gallery of Modern Art, an intervention is proposed that suggests new interest through unexpected arrangements, whereby each piece of ornament is expressed in terms of its individuality.

Quote source: Loos, A., 1998. Ornament and crime: selected essays. Riverside CA: Ariadne Press.

Contact: sarahsteenson@me.com

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