a guide to combustible city
an exhibition by adam bobbette.
1
an exhibition by adam bobbette.
1 – fire changed how we see the city.
a guide to combustible city is made of five printed tours of new york city which illustrate michael serres’ thesis that “objects are flames frozen by different time-scales.” these tours demonstrate, at four different spatial scales, the agency of combustion in shaping the city’s architecture, infrastructure and imaginary. the tours traverse, for instance, the perimeter of the great fire of 1835, exemplary sandstone buildings, the former sites of fire towers in manhattan, the banality of fire prevention in the everyday, the regional water system, and fire-prevention models at randall’s island. additionally, the tours recount the history of the fireproof building, the epistemological relationships between panoramas, hot air balloons and fire towers, the changing shape of water in the city, and the hyperreality of prevention. together, these tours reveal another city nested within new york city, a city in plain view but rarely considered; this city is constituted by and through the management and care for its own inherent fragility, this city is named combustible city.
jul 16–aug 16, 2012
press release, pdf
exhibition poster, pdf