ABOUT SIMON PHIPPS @NEW_BRUTALISM 9 SEPTEMBER - 26 OCTOBER 2016 Simon Phipps is a based artist whose work focuses on Modernist . He has been documenting British post war modernist and brutalist architecture. Phipps is the photographer for "THE BRUTALIST LONDON MAP" published by Blue Crow Media. His book "BRUTAL LONDON" a photographic survey of brutalist architecture within the inner London boroughs will be published in November 2016. Phipps is also working on a project with Darren Umney about Netherfield "BETWEEN THE RATIONAL AND THE BÉTON BRUT NATIONAL: NETHERFIELD IN THE NEW SUBURBAN LANDSCAPE" will be exhibited at the Architectural Association, London and the Milton Keynes Gallery in 2017. SIMON PHIPPS ABOUT THE FOUNDRY GALLERY The Foundry Gallery exhibits new contemporary artwork that explores the relationships that can be found and forged between art and architecture. The gallery is the brainchild of Jason Slocombe and Jonathan Goode of Le Lay Architects who set up the gallery to have a distinct relationship with Le Lay Architects who reside downstairs from the gallery. Le Lay Architects supports the gallery by funding a program of exhibitions of selected artists the gallery forming the foundation of the practices own research into how architectural ideas are conceived and how people engage with buildings and structures.

Our programme also consists of exhibitions by more established artists, curators and galleries who hire the gallery space. This enables us to continue funding our work with artists, supporting our commitment to the making of new contemporary fine art that advances the dialogues between art and architecture. The Foundry Gallery is run and curated by Elizabeth Goode.

BÉTON BRUT IS SPONSORED BY

THE FOUNDRY GALLERY 39 OLD CHURCH STREET CHELSEA LONDON SW3 5BS UK +44(0)20 7351 5456

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@FOUNDRY_GALLERY THE_FOUNDRYGALLERY #THEFOUNDRYGALLERY THE FOUNDRY GALLERY IS SUPPORTED BY THE FOUNDRY GALLERY #BETONBRUT | #THEFOUNDRYGALLERY | @NEW_BRUTALISM BRUTALISM What do you think of when you hear the word Brutalism, heroic utopia or tyrannical dystopia? Simon Phipps is ready to challenge your preconceptions of the Brutalist movement in his solo exhibition BÉTON BRUT, or ‘raw ’, the movement's signature material. Brutalism was born in post war Europe and influenced by the work of . Brutalism gained considerable momentum in the UK in the 1960’s and 70’s and has been loved and hated ever since.

Phipps photographic documentation of Brutalist architecture, gives us a fresh way of looking at these dynamic constructions through new perspectives. BÉTON BRUT presents a new series of Phipps’ architectural photography, screen printed in monochrome on aluminium panels with a halftone screen. The considered selection of materials captures one of the important principles of Brutalism, “it is not concerned with the material, but the quality of the material.” These prints move away from being the purely representational to becoming sculptural pieces in their own right. A selection of Phipps’ extensive photographic inventory sits alongside the aluminium panels, their curatorial arrangements highlighting typological similarities and differences, revealing an in-depth analysis of architectural form and structure.

INSTITUTE OF EDUCATION EROS HOUSE

“a means as powerful as the ground plan and the WHY HAVE COLOURED WALLS? section,” an essential key element of architecture The aim we had for BÉTON BRUT was to He designed a logical structured colour system introduce colour as a setting for Simon Phipps’ known as The Polychromie Architecturale which work. We have used Le Corbusier’s (LC) established connections between specific pigments principles of both colour modifying space and and colours and their effects on colour classifying objects to differentiate the two architectural spaces and its habitants. For LC colour constituents that are revealed in this new series selection was a material-based functional of Phipps’ work - the black and white consideration, he assigned colours with specific photographic prints and the screen-printed aluminium panels. functions such as to enhance the depth or weight of a space. The colour palettes were organised into Phipps’ photographic prints sit on one of the colour keyboards. remaining white gallery walls,these can be seen as interpretive, chronicling environments which The four colours we have chosen from the 1959 are significant and relevant to British architectural colours have a distinct relationship with each other history. The monochrome aluminium panels on the keyboard and are highly saturated contrasting screen printed with a half-tone screen sit upon and dynamic, selected and used for their dramatic the coloured walls distinguishing them from the effects both on the architectural space of the gallery, photographic prints as being sculptural objects in Phipps’ artwork and on the viewers of the exhibition. their own right, the colours from the walls reflecting on the surface of the metal breaking These colours also link to the Brutalist heyday of the down the image even further than the half-tone late 50’s and early 60’s. LC used them throughout screen applied to the image. The prints become more about the quality of the materials than the his béton brut architectural designs including; image in a true béton brut way. Palace of Justice, Chandigarh, and Unité d'Habitation in Marseille, arguably the most LC was a pioneer of both Modernist and influential Brutalist building of all time. ALEXANDRA ROAD Brutalist architecture who championed that colour is Elizabeth Goode, curator