Bryan Boyer and Katie Herzog
Katie Herzog, Today the Library Was Ripped A New Asshole
The Palace of Rehabilitation
"Discipline proceeds from the distribution of individuals in space." – Foucault
"[Feng Shui] deals with an understanding of the interrelated energy created by different shapes of landscapes and buildings as well as the comprehension of the flow of energy both toward and within buildings. Utilizing Feng Shui can improve overall health, finances, psychological and emotional problems, and relationships in general." – The Imperial Feng Shui Company
This project forms a paradox between two philosophies based on defining and rehabilitating human behavior through spatial arrangement. Conceived as a collaboration between Katie Herzog and Bryan Boyer, the Palace of Rehabilitation explores narrative, humor, and spatial politics which are consistent themes in our individual works. By fusing the rational, disciplinary, mechanistic world of Jeremy Bentham's Panopticon prison with the ephemeral, liberating, mystical atmospheres of Feng Shui practices we are exploring the subtle fissures that appear in both models under close inspection. This is not an attempt to debunk Western or Eastern philosophies so much as a chance to use the combination of art and design as a way of thinking about narrative and humor at a time when both have been banished from architecture.
While at PROGRAM, Boyer & Herzog will be working on a model of the Palace in preparation for an exhibition at the Circus Gallery in Los Angeles this Fall.
Bryan Boyer completed his Master of Architecture degree at the Harvard Graduate School of Design in 2008 and his Bachelor of Fine Arts in 2004 at the Rhode Island School of Design. Currently floating, he has previously worked as an architect in San Francisco, New York, and Barcelona. Boyer's work has been exhibited recently at the Harvard Graduate School of Design Gallery and the The International Architecture Biennale Rotterdam 2007.
Katie Herzog received her Bachelor of Fine Arts in 2001 from the Rhode Island School of Design, her Master of Fine Arts in 2005 from UC San Diego, and was a participant in 2007 at the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture. She is based in Los Angeles, California, and works as an Assistant Reference Librarian at the Whittier Public Library. Recent exhibitions include Angstrom Gallery in Los Angeles, and Bucket Rider Gallery in Chicago. She is currently working toward a solo show at Circus Gallery this fall.