Richard Goodwin at SAF

Every month Architecture on Show invites some of Sydney's most exciting architects to deliver an insightful and exhilarating lecture at Surry Hills Library. Expert speakers share thoughts on history, precedents, contemporary work, and their own creations and possibilities for the future.

In October, and in association with the Sydney Architecture Festival 2011, the guest speaker will be internationally exhibiting artist and architect, Professor Richard Goodwin.

With over 35 years practice as an internationally exhibiting artist and architect, Richard Goodwin’s works range from more traditional gallery exhibitions to ‘parasitic’ architecture, public artworks, urban infrastructure design and University research.

Parasitic architecture takes existing objects and melds them with new design ventures. One example was the structural roof that the architect added to a heritage building, transforming the Union Hotel in North Sydney beyond its traditional structure.

As Goodwin told the ABC in 2004:

‘I see architecture as a type of body onto which things can be attached – new propositions. Architecture, to me, is a body in a state of becoming, always. It's not a finished work. And so my art/architecture proposes a series of attachments and new things happening to those buildings as they evolve.’

Another aspect of architecture that Goodwin has been particularly involved in and even helped pioneer is freeway art. These large-scale sculptures are becoming a typical fixture on our traffic arteries, and are created in collaboration with the Road Traffic Authority in New South Wales. His first project was the Gore Hill Freeway ten years ago, and he has been banging together art for the bitumen ever since.

According to Goodwin, in the late 80s architects and artists were disinterested in working with freeways. Now they’ve become a legitimate space to display large-scale works while improving the aesthetics of otherwise bland stretches of road.

As Goodwin again told the ABC, ‘Roads are the significant sculptures of public space and we can't keep kind of apologising for them or criticising them without getting directly involved. And, in this case, we actually changed the footprint of the road. Then the more visible signs of the artist, I guess, in my case appeared – the sound walls and the sculptural environment under the road took shape.’

This innovative approach has lead to many prizes for Goodwin, including the Wynne Prize for Sculpture 2011 The Blackett Award Australian Institute of Architects 2004, The Sculpture by the Sea Water Prize 2003 and the National Sculpture Award 1985. He has also had major exhibitions at two Venice Architecture Biennales (2008, 2010), Beijing Architecture Biennale and three Australian Sculpture Tiennales, to name a small selection.

His artwork is also held in major collections including the Art Gallery of NSW, the National Gallery of Victoria and the Nuremburg Museum.

Presented by the Australian Institute of Architects NSW Chapter and the City of Sydney Library Network
Date: Saturday, October 29
Time: 2:00 PM - 3:00 PM
Cost: Ticketed, booking required
Where: Surry Hills Library & Community Centre
405 Crown Street
Surry Hills