Glenn Walls – SUPER CREATIVE GRID

Glenn Walls. Untitled (Forever Young, The Smiths). Mirror tiles, laser cut metal, gold beads, 2022. Words are taken from The Smiths’ 1985 song “There is a light that never goes out”.

Glenn Walls. Untitled (Forever Young, The Smiths). Mirror tiles, laser cut metal, gold beads, 2022. Words are taken from The Smiths’ 1985 song “There is a light that never goes out”.

Glenn Walls. Untitled (Forever Young, The Smiths). Mirror tiles, laser cut metal, gold beads, 2022. Words are taken from The Smiths’ 1985 song “There is a light that never goes out”.

Rationale

Architecture’s preoccupation with ‘normality’ has left little room for queer space to come to the fore. My current practice contributes to the public acknowledgment of queer space in the built environment by highlighting hidden identities. I am interested in creating a personal definition of queer space that is not hidden and is a reaction against normative symbols of masculinity and the ‘heterosexual assumption’ presented by 1960s Italian architectural group Superstudio anti-design grid.

This work extends my practice to encompass a boarder approach to queer space through the placement of text from queer-identifying writers and singers in the built environment. This work aims to highlight how a perceived dominant heterosexual space can be altered to queer space. Utilising the language of Superstudio’s Anti-design grid that overshadow the personal and private needs of the individual I construct narratives, in this case by incorporating the lyrics by perceived queer singer/songwriter Morrisey of The Smiths that adds new layers to Superstudio’s anti-design mirrored grid architecture to imbue it with personal significance.

“And if a double-decker bus crashes into us to die by your side is such a heavenly way to die” is from The Smiths’ 1985 song, “There is a light and it never goes out”.

This work centres on redefining the masculine/heterosexual dominance of modernist structures and spaces via texts and realigns it with a sexual minority.