Diary of ornament
ISCP, Studio 201, Brooklyn, New York, 2020
Diary of Ornament is a project realized during a residency at the ISCP in Brooklyn as part of the New York Prize. Inspired by a reflection on the ornament in architecture and its relationship with inhabiting, the project stemmed from Iacurci's fascination for Brooklyn's urban landscape in an attempt to capture the decorative motifs of the iron gates that adorn the buildings and the houses of the city. Iacurci photographed and collected these details on his home-studio journey, reproducing them as paintings on paper, one each day, like a travel diary. At the same time, he acted on the interior spaces of the ISCP, transforming his studio into an immersive environment where decorative elements, reproduced off-scale, cover the walls of room 201.
The systematic attempt to create an archeology of ornaments that embellish porticoes, railings, bricks, fireplaces, and scaffolding, is inspired by the work of Owen Jones, English designer and author of The Grammar of Ornament, a global history of ornaments. In that case, the underlying logic was the need to educate Victorian designers in the less indiscriminate use of ornaments of different origins in order to build a unique and recognizable style. Rather, Iacurci intends to reflect on the consequences of such canonization processes and how they shape the production of social values, norms and ideals that act to reduce cultural diversity.
Signs and graphic elements interact with the cultural and social aspects that underlie, inform, and enrich the architectural landscape. Iacurci shows the extent to which ornaments tell their audience about the characteristics, functions, and behaviors of society and its stratification. Most importantly, elements such as gates, gratings, and networks delimit spaces, control the urban fabric and regulate social interaction. They function as dialectical devices that separate the inside from the outside, the public space from the private one.
