The Exchange, a popular piece from the inaugural 2017 Exhibit Columbus architectural exhibition, will have a new life soon — in Taiwan with a private art collector.
“It’s very exciting to see it have another life,” said Anne Surak, Exhibit Columbus director.
Exhibit Columbus is an annual exploration of architecture, art, design, and community highlighting Columbus’ Modernist global legacy. One year, it presents a symposium. The next, a physical exhibition.
This is just one of several pieces from that first exhibition leaving to enjoy a renewed life elsewhere. Other pieces have been shipped to locations ranging from Washington, D.C., to Venice, Italy.
The welded steel piece, done by the Los Angeles-based Oyler Wu Collaborative, has been in place at the Eero Saarinen’s Irwin Conference Center at Fifth and Washington streets in downtown Columbus since August 2017. Workers are scheduled to begin taking it apart today.
“We have loved this piece as have so many in the community,” said Richard McCoy, executive director of Landmark Columbus, the umbrella agency for Exhibit Columbus. “Over the years we’ve seen so many photos of this installation — from weddings to corporate team pictures to cool shots of influencers on Instagram.
“We’re sad to see it go but thrilled to announce that, like many of the installations from our exhibitions, it is going on to another amazing site.”
McCoy added that he’s especially appreciative to Cummins Inc. for allowing the piece to remain in place so long.
Designers Dwayne Oyler and Jenny Wu were selected to be among the five J. Irwin and Xenia Miller Prize winners for the first local exhibition. They have long been admirers of the work of Saarinen, also seen locally in North Christian Church and the Miller House. As much as they talked of trying to capitalize in The Exchange on how he used light in his designs, they also said back then that wanted viewers to draw their own interpretation from their work to be built here.
Oyler mentioned in an August 2017 Republic interview that it’s not unlike a lyricist allowing a song’s audience to determine a tune’s meaning.
“I love the music analogy,” he said.
The duo explained that part of their work was inspired by the building original life as a bank — and that plaza space that faces Fifth Street’s previous life as a drive-thru. Over time, the work hosted everything from a brief Dance Kaleidoscope performance to people eating take-out lunches on the sitting areas.
Noblitt Fabricating in Columbus donated many of the supplies necessary for the piece’s construction.
Oyler Wu Collaborative has won numerous awards, including the Design Vanguard Award from Architectural Record, the Emerging Talent Award from AIA California Council, the Presidential Honor Award for Emerging Practice from AIA LA, Taiwan’s ADA Award for Emerging Architect, and the Emerging Voices Award from the Architectural League in New York.
[sc:pullout-title pullout-title=”About Exhibit Columbus” ][sc:pullout-text-begin]
Exhibit Columbus of the Landmark Columbus Foundation makes Columbus’ Modernist design legacy relevant to existing and new audiences by producing projects and events that celebrate and inspire investments in architecture, art, and design.
To learn more, visit https://exhibitcolumbus.org/.
[sc:pullout-text-end]
