Zackary Yuen

Zackary is an architectural designer and spatial artist from Hong Kong. He studied four-year BA Architectural Studies at the University of Hong Kong and practised for two years in Hong Kong prior to studying MA Architecture at the Royal College of Art in London.

Throughout his studies at the RCA, Zackary explored his ambition to practise architectural study, research and design in his own artistic and multi-disciplinary approach, challenging the conventional practice of architectural design and representation. He believes in architecture and art are two non-separable elements, and therefore he joined ADS0 the artist collective to develop his final-year project through exploring, experimenting and expressing his own umwelt and personal identity.

FORMALINFORMAL

Exploring Ambiguity Within Space

FORMALINFORMAL explores the ambiguity of space in between the formality of a London landscape park and its informal use as a gay cruising spot. The project formulates five design concepts for the Rose Garden in Hyde park which hoover in between proposals for this public space as a formal flower garden on the one hand, and as a labyrinth and pleasure garden on the other. It encompasses ambiguous objects as extensions and transformations of the existing urban furniture. The five spatial interventions subtly confirm the informal use of the park as a gay cruising spot without obstructing its usual use and perception as a horticultural public space in central London.

Each zone represents a specific design concept, these hoover in between sculpture and ergonomic device. The objects are open for interpretation, their use is not prescribed explicitly. Although, the objects themselves are the result of moulding negative spaces induced by human bodies engaged within gay sex positions.

The project started by defining the components of my personal umwelt and my interests in gay culture and its countless hidden protocols and codes of conduct brought me to study gay cruising spots as informal uses of formally designed public park spaces.

The research from early stage of the project encompassed a process of transformation and recontextualisation of traces of informal use of space within different contexts and media. The series reveals the interplay between formality and informality, between representation of traces, the objects and the actual space in which these appear. The tensions between the hidden nature of gay cruising and the normality of the park demonstrate the omnipresence of ambiguity within space. From there on, my project became about the exploration of ambiguity as a design strategy.

[A] The Boy and Dolphin Fountain / The Lobby

[B] The Bush / The Dark Room 1

[C] The Sunbathing Lawn / The Exhibitionist Lounge

[D] The Labyrinth Garden’s Rose Tunnels / The Dark Room 2

[E] The Garden Fence / The Fuck Fence

At the early stage of the project, I started mapping and documenting traces, testimonies and evidence from different gay cruising spots in London landscape parks. This video work documents the existing tensions between the normal perception of the formal park and its hidden informal use as a gay cruising spot. It hereby documents the co-existence of informal spaces within formally designed public spaces.

Wet Wipe on Wet Wipe Package

Viagra in Lunch Box

Durex on McCrispy Box

Used Condom on Tesco Bag

Jager on Domino's Box

Adore on Cardboard Package

Poppers on Coffee Cup

I transformed the documented traces of gay cruising by painting/ representing these traces onto urban waste as found in street. And then placed these painted objects into the context of an exhibition space / studio space, hereby decontextualising the representation of the traces and activating them as sculptural objects which subtly introduce gay culture and urban waste into the formal public context.

I transcribed testimonies of gay cruisers into patient information leaflets similar to those found within medicine boxes from the cruising spots. These reveal the hidden rules, protocols, code of conducts and communications at cruising spots. By transforming these testimonies into paper sculptures, I rendered a transient hidden reality into a material presence.

Plastic Bag in Sculpture Display Room

Poppers Coffee Cup on Naked Female Sculpture

Wet Wipe on Wet Wipe Package on Cafe Table

Pizza Box in AVL Pavillion

Condom Buger Box at Bush

Condom Package at Tree

Viagra Note at Het Huis

I remoulded both the painted waste-objects and the information leaflets into colourised bronze objects and positioned these as real sculptures within the context of the Middelheim Sculpture Park in Antwerp Belgium. The objects appear to be left behind and through their accidental status subtly introduce the thematic of gay cruising into a dual environment which doubts in between a sculpture park as an art institution that opens between 9 and 5 and a public park which opens 24/7.

Zackary Yuen

FORMALINFORMAL

Exploring Ambiguity Within Space

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Royal College of Art