“Deviant Decoration” Series to Present Two Speakers, New Exhibit
September 11, 2009
David Serlin, associate professor of communication and science studies at the University of California at San Diego, and Sarah Wigglesworth, London-based architect and professor of architecture at the University of Sheffield, will give consecutive lectures beginning at 4 p.m. on Monday, September 28, in the first-floor jury space of the Stuckeman Family Building. Their lectures are part of the "Deviant Decoration: The Architectural Interior" series, a two-year ongoing program of public lectures and exhibitions that explore innovative approaches to interior spaces. The public is invited to a reception following the lectures to celebrate the opening of the exhibit Body Works, featuring recent projects by Wigglesworth, in the Willard G. Rouse III Gallery in the Stuckeman Family Building.
The theme of the fall 2009 events is Maladif (French for sickly). In his lecture, titled "Window Shopping with Helen Keller," Serlin will discuss his upcoming book on disability and architecture. A cultural historian, he is the author of Replaceable You: Engineering the Body in Postwar America. Wigglesworth will explore theories of the body, materiality and decoration in her lecture, "Licking Walls and Stroking Air." Wigglesworth's experimental approach to building uses low-energy principles and cheap materials in highly innovative ways. The recipient of many design awards, she is also the co-author of Desiring Practices: Architecture, Gender and the Interdisciplinary. The Body Works exhibit will feature Wigglesworth's straw bale house and quilted studio and Siobhan Davies Dance Studio, both in London, and the Mossbrook School, a special school for physically and mentally disabled children in Sheffield.
Body Works will be on display September 28–December 15, 2009. Gallery hours are 9 a.m.–5 p.m. The Deviant Decoration events have been funded by the Penn State Institute for the Arts and Humanities and the Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts. For more information on the lectures and exhibit, contact Christine Gorby at clg15@psu.edu.
Contact: Amy Milgrub Marshall, alm157@psu.edu or 814.863.2104