Western Standards C2-120, 2016 , steel studs, baltic birchwood, and existing architecture. Courtesy the artist.
Western Standards C2-120, 2016 , steel studs, baltic birchwood, and existing architecture. Courtesy the artist.
Organizational Transparency, 2016, LLUMAR N-07 reflective film and existing architecture. Courtesy the artist.
Organizational Transparency (detail), 2016, LLUMAR N-07 reflective film and existing architecture. Courtesy the artist.
Western Standards C2-120 is an architectural intervention at the Queens Museum. Ruiz used a custom parametric design algorithm (a digital code) to determine a composition of standardized steel studs. The work is comprised of two intersecting screen systems that occupy and partition the threshold of the museum indoor space and the outdoor park space just a few feet away through a semi-mirrored glass facade. As a modular unit, the steel studs gesture towards the hyper-development of our built environment, while the visual obstruction of the screen system highlights the blurry boundary between spaces of inclusion and exclusion. The work mimics the conditions of spatial privatization while calling into question legacies of Modernist architecture's pursuit of transparency in design and commenting on its often unfulfilled promise of access.
For Organizational Transparency, Ruiz has applied one-way mirror film to a ground portion of the Museum's glass facade where Western Standards C2-120 is installed. A type of foil often used in corporate buildings and construction sites, the material obscures the interior view by mirroring back the gaze from outside while still allowing an unobstructed exterior view from within. Together the works visually demonstrate the power dynamics involved in the distinction between public and private spaces.
Alan Ruiz’s work addresses the intersection of site-reflexivity, architectural discourse, and urban policy. He received an MFA from Yale University (2009), a BFA from Pratt Institute (2006), and is a 2015–2016 participant in the Whitney Museum Independent Study Program. His work has been shown both nationally and internationally, including exhibitions at Abrons Art Center, New York, NY (2016), Horatio Jr., London, UK (2014), Johannes Vogt Gallery, New York, NY (2013), the Bronx Museum of the Arts, Bronx, NY (2011), and Y Gallery, New York, NY (2011). His writing has been featured in TDR (The Drama Review, MIT Press), InVisible Culture: an Electronic Journal for Visual Culture, and BOMB Magazine. In 2015 Ruiz was an Artist-in-Residence with the Youth Insights Program at the Whitney Museum of American Art.