Tauba Auerbach, A Taxonomy of Linear Ornament
On the occasion of publishing A Partial Taxonomy of Linear Ornament — Both Established and Original — Organized by Shape, Symmetry, Dimension, Iteration and Projection— Including Extrude the Extrusion and Ornament as Entheogen , Tauba Auerbach will discuss a range of topics, from topology to gesture, Traditional Chinese Medicine, architecture and (a)symmetry. The project of this book began at The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Watson Library, where the artist was asked to pull books from the collection to share with visitors in a public presentation. After naturally selecting titles on long-running interests such as architectural ornament, textiles, and color models, Auerbach realized a need to organize her collection of ornament drawings to make sense of relationships between the various shapes. A corresponding set of connections between the artist’s scientific interests emerged alongside of it. Taxonomy has been showing up as a work-in-progress in various exhibitions ever since, and is finally complete. The lecture will be accompanied by a related, five-day installation in the Kadist office, which introduces a series of large-scale prints and a collaborative project between Auerbach and David Reinfurt — an inductive screensaver.