THE STUDIO OF JORN UTZON CREATING THE OPERA HOUSE

摘要

It's one thing to have buildings you like, that you find interesting, that you have been influenced by; even to have a favourite building is commonplace enough. But it is another thing to actually love a work of architecture. Given that buildings can be rather unyielding and even unlovable things, it is rare to feel a deep personal connection, to feel both affectionate and passionate towards one. I suspect that for many people, and certainly for me, the Sydney Opera House would be one of the few buildings that would fall into this category. And an exhibition about the Opera House, currently mounted at the Museum of Sydney, has reinforced this all over again. The exhibition has been curated by guest curator John Murphy, and designed by Kathryn Grant of kfg design. It is called The Studio of Jorn Utzon: Creating the Opera House, and is certainly the most comprehensive exhibition yet to be staged about the building and its creative evolution. It includes numerous drawings, models and photographs that have never before been publicly exhibited, and are here assembled and presented with great clarity and sensitivity. Artefacts include the original competition drawings, complete with gold leaf rendering and pencil-corrected spelling errors, and a wonderful overall perspective drawn by Eero Saarinen, drawn to assist in communicating the winning scheme to the public. There is also a selection of significant archival film footage, including Utzon's travel movies of Mayan temples in Mexico, which are particularly fascinating - meticulously constructed, the films are full of careful slow pans and zooms. The young Utzon could not have known how these pre-Columbian temples would influence his later work, but his careful and close documentation cannot but be endearing. What was he planning to do with these films? Watch them again and again for his own reference? Archive them for posterity? Entertain his architect friends at parties?