Homiens Art Prize
Jurors’ Feedback
Kevin Driscoll
A monument to contemporary architecture, 2024
Cold-formed steel structural members, Code of Standard Practice, foam and spray paint on a wood plinth 47.2″ x 27.5″ x 118.1″ (1200mm x 700mm x 3000mm)
Text From The Jurors
In A monument to contemporary architecture Kevin goes to great lengths, literal and symbolic, to probe and question the felt realities of architectural and economic change; exploring also how many of us experience an ongoing relationship between architecture and the economy. We thoroughly enjoyed the far-reaching implications of this investigation, and appreciated the visual clarity with which Kevin has been able to prosecute it. This refinement speaks, we feel, to a great deal of thought and discernment on Kevin’s part around his subject matter, and to careful consideration over time around how best to communicate a complex concept effectively both in conjunction with, and in lieu of a viewer’s ability to read his Artist’s Statement.
We encourage all artists to strive to create work that, while perhaps complimented or conceptually enriched through the presence of an Artist’s Statement, can be appreciated and understood, to an extent, by the viewer even without the Statement. Kevin’s artwork uses relationality, and calls upon a number of different visual features, symbols, and forms of measurement to ask confronting questions about the nature of our contemporary relationship to space, and to current economic conditions. These questions, while drawn out beautifully through the relevant anecdotes and articulate remarks in Kevin’s Statement, are present in the visual language he uses.
Perhaps above all else, sculpture has the ability to move us through physicality and presence. It’s fantastic to demonstrate an awareness of the strengths of your chosen form. We felt Kevin demonstrated an acute understanding of the strengths of sculpture, utilizing height and space exceptionally well to articulate two complicated, and interrelated sentiments: a perceived withering of architectural aesthetics and material integrity when compared to the lofty proclamations of earlier, classical forms, and the very real impact of wage stagnation, inflation, late-stage capitalism, and other accelerating economic forces upon housing affordability.
While elevated on a plinth and therefore not necessarily an interactive artwork, Kevin draws our attention to the door through his use of color, and the salient detail of the door handle, which read to the viewer as an invitational cue. The door also symbolically invites interaction, or at the very least, consideration from the viewer of what it would be like to interact with the artwork, opening the door, and occupying the space within. The viewer is encouraged to contemplate this smaller, centered space (which is both imbued with personal, lived meaning for the artist, and an effective point of connection and relevance for the viewer, who is encouraged to envision their own living space) from the position they occupy within a loftier, vaulted space—replete with arches and molding which draw further attention through contrast to the questions of diminishing scale and reduced affordability the artwork is working to highlight.
