BMike Gallery

BMike, a New Orleans visual artist and political activist, recently held an exhibition at Newcomb Art Museum at Tulane University. Not Supposed 2-Be Here, the widely celebrated installation, featured site-specific exhibits that challenged the established notion of who or what is supposed to be shown in an art exhibit. The installation displayed spray paint pieces, figurine art, scenic experiences, and a stack of old TVs.

While visiting the exhibit, I was captivated by the stack of TVs. The TVs flickered, barely functioning. It seemed so arbitrary, with no relation to the rest of the installation, and yet without it, the installation would lose all meaning. It was then when I began designing a gallery space of its own.

I used a 1,000 square foot square as the base for my design. I employed curves into the main sectors of the design to appeal to the idiosyncrasies of BMike’s piece. Three of the curves are gallery spaces, the first being in the entry. The second, in the center of the space is to show off BMike’s figurine collections. The third and final gallery space, to the left of the second one, is the main space, home to BMike’s television collection. It was intentionally designed to not be in the center as a play on the title of BMike’s installation, Not Supposed 2-Be Here. The other curves in the design are smaller gallery spaces, a library and bathroom.

These curves are accentuated onto the roof plan. Each of the highlights spaces have a pitched extrusion, and windows on the flat facades. This recreates the scene of the TVs stacked on boxes so that the entire building looks similar in design to the main attraction of the exhibit. The extrusions act as the structures of the TVs, and the windows bring views into the exhibit acting as the tv screens.