Buildings and Gestures is a large architectural sculpture made of cardboard and packing tape over a wooden armature.

The structure is a conglomeration of architectural types containing a video projection that viewers can see when entering the sculpture from an opening on the back of the piece. In the video, also called Buildings and Gestures, multiple participants describe from memory iconic buildings they have visited. Each participant describes a different building from locations all over the world, but the footage is cut to suggest a narrative of a single building. The cuts include only the gestures and their corresponding speech. The subjects are shot in a white room, devoid of detail and visual cues, to emphasize the visual and spatial aspects of speech.

Related Press

• Lund, Karsten, “Susan Giles: Buildings and Gestures,” Flavorpill, March 2 – 8, 2010, issue 285

• Ruiz, Steve, “Susan Giles @ Kavi Gupta,” Chicago Art Review, February 24, 2010

• LaFollette, Ryan, “Building Traveling Thinking,” The Architect’s Newspaper, February 12, 2010

• Foumberg, Jason, “Art Break: New Sculpture in Chicago,” New City, February 8, 2010