Today was my first time visiting the new Emily Carr University campus. It reminds me of my 3rd year study on the formal Granville Island campus. The South building was just newly built with fresh concrete slab and plywood interior furnishing. It was industrially hip with lots of large windows for natural light to shine in during the day. The new building created a sense of assurance and eliteness in the learning and creative environment as I recalled stepping into the space for the first time. The same senses came unto me as I set foot on this much expanded new campus on Great Northern Way. New facade but the same vibe of creative energy still reins in this highly cultivated environment for those who are driven to think, express and create.

The Show, Emily Carr University, Vancouver, 2019

I have always love Omer Arbel’s works. They are just so organic and fluid yet intentional at the same time. When my brother and I had the coffee shop nearby his office, he would come by with his associates. He is always curious about everything. Creative energy is very present and contagious when the crew is in the house. Respect to this visionary creative genius. Here is to the exhibition at Surrey Art Gallery, Omer Arbel: Particles for the built world.

“Experimentation drives Omer Arbel’s art and design practice. He manipulates basic materials by applying heat, force, pressure, electricity, or movement to achieve surprising results. Particles for the Built World focuses on Arbel’s experiments with concrete over the past five years. What if we poured concrete into fabric forms rather than plywood boxes or tube columns used in most building construction? The astonishing results are on display in this exhibit. “My intention is to develop a way of working with concrete that acknowledges its liquid nature and yields expressive form,” he says. “These new methods could have significant practical and sculptural ramifications to the construction industry.”

The exhibit begins with the material research phase of Arbel’s process, showing a large fabric-cast concrete object spliced into nine 14 inch wide sections. The cuts are a way of allowing the viewer’s imagination (and his own) to understand the amorphous shapes resulting from the technique of fabric forming, as if with x-ray vision.

From there, visitors can see how the fabric forming technique applies to a South Surrey home currently under construction. Designed by Arbel and named 75.9, the house features fabric-formed concrete pillars in the shape of inverted trumpets, ranging from 14 to 30 feet tall. The columns are slender at their base and open up into large rectangular tops that become the roof of the house. Root balls of transplanted mature trees fill in the large voids of the trumpet shapes. In addition to the sculptural installation, visitors will see a multi-channel projected film, architectural models, plans, photographs, and sectional collages. These objects, images, and sculptures reimagine domestic and urban life outside the flat rectilinear visual language of so much modern design.” - https://www.surrey.ca/culture-recreation/28790.aspx