La’keem Timothy
The Mask That Grins
Ornament as crime, “satisfactions of a high order”, rejection of “esthetic speculation” and a “definition of truth” – these positions have shaped the foreground of the field of architecture, producing a singular consciousness: ' One soul, One line of thought, in One body '.
In the background is its double. Prescribed as the opposition and suppressed, in common contempt, under a veil cast by that single ‘high’ order.
The presence of the veil, although not acknowledged or experienced by the foreground, creates friction. The one-sidedness of this boundary fractures and doubles the perceived space between them. In this state of obscurity, that once hidden consciousness of the background emerges and makes its way to the foreground. What was once singular and unified now doubles, with two lines of thought existing within a single body.
The Apollo theater in Harlem embodies its own historical and cultural twoness. With origins in the burlesque, the theater has since transformed into one of Harlem’s preeminent cultural hubs. Despite this transformation, The Apollo’s architecture has remained unchanged. This architectural stagnancy acts as a veil, obscuring a different aspect of the building’s identity and placing it in the background. The thesis, however, looks to flip that position from background to foreground.
The Mask That Grins is an architectural exploration of what W.E.B Dubois coined as “double consciousness”. A consciousness which operates based on the complexity of identity, movement, and rhythm. It is an exploration that centers the Black Experience and begins to carve and pull Black spaces out of the dominance of Eurocentric modes within architecture. It is an Afrofuturist manifesto, with hints of (Afro) surrealism, that tangibly recontextualizes the Black Experience within a dominant framework.
Twoness – Views from the street
Twoness – Elevation
Twoness – Vignette
Double Consciousness within the Sugar Shack - Preliminary Diagram 01
Double Consciousness within the Sugar Shack - Preliminary Diagram 02
The Veil - Preliminary Diagram 03
First look - Preliminary Research