Unity Temple

Tarik Hayward

2014
Bags of cement
Uninstalled
Tarik Hayward

Tarik Hayward has been recently running towards an artistic demarche that could be described as a more immediate approach, in the direction of performance and sculpture. These two areas are often intertwined in his recent work and have been realised in his latest work for the Park.

Erected in the ruins of a modernist structure that was removed earlier this year, Unity Temple references a ritualistic response to constant change on the mountain combined with the immediate need for survival. The destruction of this past installation represents a sign of instability, both structural, economical and spiritual. As ruins are remnants of past realities, they become memorials to decay and evolution, with change often happening brutally with no signs of departure.

Ritualistically building with sand bags in a repetitive and quick motion, Hayward finds solace in the renewal of a contemporary temple for visitors to find refuge from inevitable change. This practice also refers to survival wartime situations of urgent necessity to be sheltered. The title Unity Temple gives reference to the first modern building using concrete as both a structural and aesthetical material by architect Frank Loyd Wright, which was actually a church.

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