Curatorial Statement | Artist's Résumé

'For the first time in history it is now possible to take care of everybody at a higher standard of living than any have ever known. All humanity now has the option to become enduringly successful...'

So claimed inventor, architect, and mathematician Buckminster Fuller in 1980. Over twenty years after Fuller's death, his ideas continue to filter through political and philosophical thought and he emerges as a central presence in Dan Arps' installation Model for a Commune. Arps takes Fuller's ideas as a starting point for his investigation of the1970s social experiments in community living. At the same time, Model for a Commune refers back to the artist's own experience living in a cooperative situation as a young child, resulting in a work which is both wistful and interrogative.

Fuller combined his utopian beliefs with practical engineering skills and is best known for the invention of the geodesic dome - the lightest, strongest, and most cost-effective structure ever devised. Arps has long been fascinated with Fuller's domes and here offers up a series of small architectural models using the geodesic structure. However, while Fuller's blueprint was constructed using three constant measurements, Arps has produced domes with the third measurement as a variable. The result is that the domes, usually a symbol of perfect symmetry and balance, become chaotic and erratic in shape.

Alongside the models, Arps presents a range of small sculptures rendered from DAS (air-drying clay). Arps calls these 'automatic sculptures' - constructing them simply by taking the clay and 'squeezing it in my hands until it's right'. Mirroring the hobbyist philosophy of many of the 70s alternative life-stylers, Arps' pottery attempts loll beside the fractured perfection of his domes, offering a personal approach into the complexity of Fuller's ideology. An intricately layered project, Model for a Commune offers social commentary which could be read as either earnest or ironic, but somehow manages to be both.

Emma Bugden

Dan Arps would like to thank the following people for assistance with his work for Telecom Prospect 2004: Gwynneth Porter, Jon Bywater, Nova Paul, Adam Willetts, Peter Madden, Dane Mitchell, Hari Kunzru and Ralph Paine.