re-forming space — susan white and cydney millstein

Friday, June 20th to Saturday, July 19th, 2008

“The only works of art America has given are her plumbing and her bridges,” Marcel Duchamp famously stated. Presently, because of nationwide, on-going rebuilding of our bridges; events such as the collapse of the Minneapolis I-35W Mississippi Bridge in 2007; and the impending replacement of Kansas City’s Paseo Bridge, we are perhaps more aware than ever of the condition and significance of bridge design, past and present. In Re-Forming Space, Kansas City artist Susan White and architectural historian Cydney Millstein turned their attention to several Kansas City bridges that represent triumphs of American civil engineering – and feats of great beauty as well. “On a personal scale we experience bridges from afar as three-dimensional drawings, and in an immediate way, as sculptural forms through which we pass.

Indeed, bridges have a way of transforming or reforming space,” wrote Susan White. Merging the practices and expertise of the two collaborators, the exhibition featured a series of new artworks by White, including graphite drawings on vellum, pyrographs (burn drawings) on paper, two large-scale wall drawings/installations, sculpture, and video. It also included narrative wall texts by Millstein along with a digital slide show featuring reproductions of historical photographs and architectural drawings.

Representing extraordinary fusions of technological innovation and structural beauty, the bridges explored in this exhibition included the Broadway Bridge, the Twelfth Street Trafficway Viaduct, the ASB Bridge, the Paseo Bridge, and the Waddell “A” Truss Bridge. These featured bridges were designed by the eminent engineer John Alexander Low Waddell (1854-1938) and his successor firms including (but not limited to) Waddell & Hedrick; Waddell & Harrington; and Howard, Needles, Tammen & Bergendoff (HNTB).

For photos of the event, check out our flickr.