Bare walls, empty room

A project by Dino Chai, 2012

Bare walls, empty room by Dino Chai was a series of six architectural interventions within the split/fountain space in Eden Terrace, Auckland. Realised one per week, every Saturday for six consecutive weeks, Bare walls, empty room explored the poetics of architectural space. Each installation is accompanied by a short text written by Chai.

Organised by onne terre and Layla Tweedie-Cullen with Nat Cheshire, Chai’s Bare walls, empty room attempts to exhibit architecture in a new format and promote discourse around the work of emerging architects in New Zealand.

#1
“For a start, here are some notes about the place: the light is soft; reflections of steel-framed glass panels are scattered onto a brick wall across the open hallway. Clouds come past; the sky starts to dribble; dark shadows vanish into lighter shadows, they are pale and blue. Then a passage about a distant place comes to mind, all in a sudden moment of sadness; perhaps it is because I know all the things of which I am certain are all the things of which I do not know how to tell. Then clouds come past; it starts to rain; shadows vanish into shadows, pale and blue. It is winter.”

#2
“Then the colours fade; the smell of dampened earth mixes with that of burning coal. Children have already gone home; the dust starts to settle on the ground. An empty swing sways in this darkness..”

#3

#4
Leaning against a wall, her glance turns into blank pages of the night; the dark shine of the summer night, it swims in bright gazes of those drowning in silence. I then lean towards your shadow; it leans towards mine.

#5
Sometimes I gaze into an empty space; often I see you falling into pieces. Time is a haze; memory is a haze.