Flower-covered theatre forms centrepiece of Denise Scott Brown's photography exhibition

A flower-covered theatre has been installed at the centre of an exhibition dedicated to architect Denise Scott Brown's photographs at the brutalist Yale architecture school building in New Haven, USA.

Set within the Paul Rudolph-designed architecture school, Encounters: Denise Scott Brown Photographs aims to draw attention to the photographs taken by the highly influential architect in the early part of her career.

"Our two main aims were to present this extraordinary body of work, much of which has never before been exhibited, and to prompt audiences to think critically about it in the context of 20th-century architecture and design," explained the exhibition's curator Izzy Kornblatt.

"To that end, the show includes not just Denise's photos but archival materials, design objects, and work by other photographers like Ed Ruscha and David Goldblatt, all of which helps place Denise's work into historical context and suggest new ways of thinking about it."

At the centre of the exhibition is a custom-built, circular theatre painted light green and adorned with reflective, silver flower shapes.

Within the theatre, a pair of projectors shows juxtapositions of Scott Brown's photographs on 35-millimetre slides, while the form acts as a device to organise the space.

The colour and form were also chosen to contrast with the brutalist building.

"There are a lot of things we like about the round theatre, but ultimately it comes down to that form working better in the space than everything else we tried," explained Yaxuan Liu, who co-designed the exhibition with Kornblatt.

"It's an incredible gallery, designed by Paul Rudolph, but the double height and bush-hammered concrete give it such a strong architectural presence that it can swallow up small or delicate works on display."

"Putting a colourful, flower-covered theatre in the centre was a way of giving the exhibition a big, splashy identity, of playfully competing with Rudolph and starting a conversation with the architecture of the building," Liu continued.

"The theatre is deliberately and frustratingly off axis, and with its brightly painted walls and shiny silver appliqué, it speaks an entirely different architectural language. It's very much a tribute to Venturi Scott Brown's work."

The exhibition itself builds on the book of the same name, published by Lars Müller Publishers, which contains photographs taken by Scott Brown from the 1950s to the 1970s.

"The theatre space is immersive and relaxing, and allows visitors to experience these images in the format that Denise herself used them – as 35 millimetre slides," said Kornblatt.

"The five rooms around the theater, by contrast, offer a non-linear series of thematic explorations of Denise's work – you can move through them in any order, and you start to notice juxtapositions and spatial relationships between the work on display that we hope helps prompt critical questions about what these photographs mean."

According to Kornblatt, translating the material from the book was more complex than he expected

"One perhaps surprising thing is that in some ways the show goes deeper than the book: unlike the book, it includes extensive archival material, and it required considerable additional research on the part of the editorial team," he said.

"People often assume that a book requires more research than a show, but in this case it wasn't that simple."

Kornblatt hopes that visitors to the exhibition will see Scott Brown's photography as a jumping-off point to consider wider questions about architecture and the wider world.

"If Denise's photographs record a series of fleeting encounters with people and places around the world, the show offers visitors different kinds of encounters with those photographs, and hopefully also prompts them to reconsider how they observe the world around them – to encounter themselves, in a way," he said.

"I hope people who visit the show find a way in to Denise's photography – a way to think with and about it, and to start asking bigger questions about what it means for us in the present moment," he continued.

"This photography is both important and complicated, and we worked hard to create a show that honours it without treating it as above critique."

Scott Brown is one of the 20th century's most influential architects and, along with her partner Robert Venturi, was one of the key proponents of the postmodern movement.

Scott Brown and Venturi won the AIA Gold Medal in 2016, while Scott Brown won the Jane Drew Prize for women in architecture in 2017.

The photography is by Yaxuan Liu.

Encounters: Denise Scott Brown Photographs runs until 3 July at Yale Architecture Gallery, New Haven, USA. For more events, exhibitions and talks in architecture and design visit the Dezeen Events Guide.

Project credits:

Curator: Izzy Kornblatt
Exhibition designer: Yaxuan Liu
Curatorial associates: Ugen Yonten, Peter Xu
Graphic designer: Milo Bonacci
YSOA director of exhibitions: Andrew Benner
YSOA exhibition coordinator and registrar: Alison Walsh
Installation: Jay Bates, Ryan Cyr, Evan DiGiovanni, Jaime Kriksciun, Zach Wilder
Theatre fabrication: Trueline Productions

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