Two Sites with a Similar Problem

Two Sites with a Similar Problem portrays two different places, each with a unique catastrophe. One is the sound stage of musician Prince, which falls prey to a meteor strike and planetary visitors, and the other is a famous Mies van der Rohe house struck by a landslide.

The collaborative OortCloudX (Neil Forrest and John Roloff), chose two personalities from popular culture and connected to architecture, and created a brief storyline for each. Common to each iconic site, is a co-relation to the Tora Bora cave-tunnel complex of Afghanistan.

Forrest illustrated the unanticipated arrival of a celestial body at Prince's Minneapolis property and Roloff rendered the geological instability of Mies' Farnsworth House.

There are three elements at this site: Prince’s studio, a planetary collision and almost hidden tunnels. Prince’s studio is transgressed by a ship's hull, a kind of metaphor for Prince's expansive imagination. The meteor is the ‘near disaster’...making a crater beside Prince's studio. The 'chorus' of astronauts who gather around the impact zone are the supporting cast who move the action along...a cartoon opera. Astronauts are without a home - the nomads of the universe.

The final element is the table and underneath, the tunnels at Tora Bora, formerly Bin Laden's headquarters in Afghanistan. The subconscious element is very often a threat.

Paisley Park at Two Sites, with astronauts & meteor, by Neil Forrest

installation dimensions

5 m l x 3 m w x 2 m h

19’ l x 10’ w x 6’ h

Farnsworth, piano & tunnels by John Roloff.

Roloff finds a potential disaster for Mies van der Rohe's famed glass house, in which the Tora Bora tunnels penetrate. The house falls prey to a landslide as well, signalling its problematic role in the public's imagination.

drawing and photographic print wall

5 m l x 2.5 m h 19’ l x 8’ h

Two Sites with a Similar Problem

OortCloudX (Neil Forrest + John Roloff)

2019

terra cotta, stoneware, drawings, photographic prints, tables, sandpaper, sand

solo exhibition at Rapson Library

University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, 2019

Two Sites with a Similar Problem video of installation

Photography by Neil Forrest & John Roloff