Artist Anne Marie Nequette

Anne Marie Nequette

Project Description

La Ciudad/La Cittá: In Memory of My Father and for Italo Calvino

The requirements for this project pose two very provocative and interrelated questions, one having to do with conceptions of space and matter and the other with the scale of the human body and its precise haptic extension, the human hand. The infinite Cartesian grid of one foot by one foot describes a regularized space and time, marking off a pace and a rhythm in three dimensions that not only waits to be filled, but begs to be modulated and modified with counter-points and shifts in perspective. Picasso’s Portrait of Ambroise Vollard comes to mind, where matter and space are understood as interdependent or inseparable aspects of one essence. Within that context of spatial-material fluidity, the place of the human body and how one ‘knows’ the world with the body, the muscles, bones and skin of the hand are called to attention by something that measures the body and at the same time articulates the hand. The ‘image’ is of a city, like one of Italio Calvino’s Invisible Cities on stilts, like Venice on its ancient wooden posts, once lovingly held above high water with concentrations of buildings, plazas, bridges, windows and doors linking interior and exterior worlds and bound in time. At the same time this built landscape is very much influenced by the harsh beauty of the Sononan desert.

Artist Statement

This particular work grows out of a previous series of large scale paintings on paper, where the intention was to draw the ‘viewer’ in, to began to work away at the ocular-centric emphasis used in our capitalistic and socio-economic media. The series of paintings are 48” high by approximately 90” long and intended to be hung in the field of the body, i.e., with the bottom edge at 2-1/2 or 3 feet from the floor, thus adjacent to the torso.

The use of small pieces of scrap wood—a natural and renewable resource where nature’s design defines and ancient, living beauty, makes use of something that is ‘thrown away’ or burned in a fireplace. This is in some ways where this project started. When I was a young, my father taught middle-school woodshop classes all day long for 30 years. He brought the scraps home for me to build with, and in the winter I built a new city in the fireplace every night.

Resume

1986 March, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ

1983 MFA, University of California, Irvine, CA

1981 BA, Fine Arts, California State University Northridge, Northridge, CA

1979 Small Private Art School, Venice, CA

Independent travel study (Art and Architecture) to: Spain, Italy, Greece, France, Germany, United Kingdom, Canada, United States and Australia

Group:

1994 Tucson Pima Arts Council: Art by Architects
1983 Clarimont College, Group Show
1983 Fine Arts Gallery, University of California at Irvine, Installation

Professional Experience

1996 - present University of Arizona, School of Architecture, Lecturer: Arc 332: World History III, Modern and Contemporary History + Theory. Design Studios: Arc 201, Arc 202, Arc 302, Capstone, Thesis and Independent Study Advising. Trad 103: Architecture and Society with Honors Section.

1995 - 1996 UA Extended University, Lecturer: "Tucson's Architectural Heritage"

1987 - 1996 Professional Practice in Architecture with Anderson DeBartolo Pan, Architecture One, IEF Group, Burns + Wald-Hopkins Architects, and private practice: Anne-Marie Nequette, Architect
UA College of Architecture: Invited guest studio critic and guest juror

1982 - 1983 U.C. Irvine School of Fine Arts: Graduate Teaching Assistant , Art & Architecture course; lectures & course development and assistant in design studio

Community Service

2004 – present Founding member of MAPP: Modern Architecture Preservation Project of Tucson. Non-profit community based organization working for the preservation of Modern Architecture in Tucson

1995 - present Numerous Public Lectures, Forums and Architectural Walking Tours on Tucson Architecture, Preservation and Sustainable Practices. Volunteer, Habitat for Humanity. Mentor: New Frontiers and WISE, both Gender Equity Programs, TUSD Elementary, Middle and High School architecture workshops.

Publications/Work in Progress

2003 - present Grant funded current research ‘Sustainable Design Strategies for Hot-arid Climates: A Comparative Study’ (includes Australia, American Southwest and Spain)

2002 Co-author, with R. Brooks Jeffery, of A Guide to Tucson Architecture, University of Arizona Press, 2002

1997 Participant, ‘Our Future in the Desert: Architectural Explorations’ exhibition and lecture, sponsored by VisionWeavers/Scottsdale Center for the Arts



	Anne Marie Nequette Project Description La Ciudad/La Cittá: In Memory of My Father and for Italo Calvino The requirements for this project pose two very provocative and interrelated questions, one having to do with conceptions of space and matter and the other with the scale of the human body and its precise haptic extension, the human hand. The infinite Cartesian grid of one foot by one foot describes a regularized space and time, marking off a pace and a rhythm in three dimensions that not only waits to be filled, but begs to be modulated and modified with counter-points and shifts in perspective. Picasso’s Portrait of Ambroise Vollard comes to mind, where matter and space are understood as interdependent or inseparable aspects of one essence. Within that context of spatial-material fluidity, the place of the human body and how one ‘knows’ the world with the body, the muscles, bones and skin of the hand are called to attention by something that measures the body and at the same time articulates the hand. The ‘image’ is of a city, like one of Italio Calvino’s Invisible Cities on stilts, like Venice on its ancient wooden posts, once lovingly held above high water with concentrations of buildings, plazas, bridges, windows and doors linking interior and exterior worlds and bound in time. At the same time this built landscape is very much influenced by the harsh beauty of the Sononan desert. Artist Statement This particular work grows out of a previous series of large scale paintings on paper, where the intention was to draw the ‘viewer’ in, to began to work away at the ocular-centric emphasis used in our capitalistic and socio-economic media. The series of paintings are 48” high by approximately 90” long and intended to be hung in the field of the body, i.e., with the bottom edge at 2-1/2 or 3 feet from the floor, thus adjacent to the torso. The use of small pieces of scrap wood—a natural and renewable resource where nature’s design defines and ancient, living beauty, makes use of something that is ‘thrown away’ or burned in a fireplace. This is in some ways where this project started. When I was a young, my father taught middle-school woodshop classes all day long for 30 years. He brought the scraps home for me to build with, and in the winter I built a new city in the fireplace every night. Resume Education 1986 March, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 1983 MFA, University of California, Irvine, CA 1981 BA, Fine Arts, California State University Northridge, Northridge, CA 1979 Small Private Art School, Venice, CA Independent travel study (Art and Architecture) to: Spain, Italy, Greece, France, Germany, United Kingdom, Canada, United States and Australia Exhibitions Group: 1994 Tucson Pima Arts Council: Art by Architects 1983 Clarimont College, Group Show 1983 Fine Arts Gallery, University of California at Irvine, Installation Professional Experience 1996 - present University of Arizona, School of Architecture, Lecturer: Arc 332: World History III, Modern and Contemporary History + Theory. Design Studios: Arc 201, Arc 202, Arc 302, Capstone, Thesis and Independent Study Advising. Trad 103: Architecture and Society with Honors Section. 1995 - 1996 UA Extended University, Lecturer: "Tucson's Architectural Heritage" 1987 - 1996 Professional Practice in Architecture with Anderson DeBartolo Pan, Architecture One, IEF Group, Burns + Wald-Hopkins Architects, and private practice: Anne-Marie Nequette, Architect UA College of Architecture: Invited guest studio critic and guest juror 1982 - 1983 U.C. Irvine School of Fine Arts: Graduate Teaching Assistant , Art & Architecture course; lectures & course development and assistant in design studio Community Service 2004 – present Founding member of MAPP: Modern Architecture Preservation Project of Tucson. Non-profit community based organization working for the preservation of Modern Architecture in Tucson 1995 - present Numerous Public Lectures, Forums and Architectural Walking Tours on Tucson Architecture, Preservation and Sustainable Practices. Volunteer, Habitat for Humanity. Mentor: New Frontiers and WISE, both Gender Equity Programs, TUSD Elementary, Middle and High School architecture workshops. Publications/Work in Progress 2003 - present Grant funded current research ‘Sustainable Design Strategies for Hot-arid Climates: A Comparative Study’ (includes Australia, American Southwest and Spain) 2002 Co-author, with R. Brooks Jeffery, of A Guide to Tucson Architecture, University of Arizona Press, 2002 1997 Participant, ‘Our Future in the Desert: Architectural Explorations’ exhibition and lecture, sponsored by VisionWeavers/Scottsdale Center for the Arts





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