Paradox and Practice: Architecture in the Wake of Conceptualism re-thinks the legacy of Conceptualism vis-á-vis the philosophical operation of paradox.  Specifically, the notion of "site," as it exists between art and architecture, is reconsidered.  Thinking about paradox and conceptualism is no formal exercise; it is a political imperative.  Take, for example, last year's infamous Torture Memo, drafted by Alberto Gonzalez, in which any paradoxical notion of a "state of statelessness" was denied.  Within such logic, the Geneva Convention could be dismissed as "irrelevant" to those lacking clear national status.  In this cultural context, the curators of Paradox and Practice argue the progressiveness of thinking non-dialectically as an aesthetic and political act.  This exhibition brings together practitioners whose work lies at the nexus of architecture and conceptual art.  Congregating along this boundary, the artists interrogate conventions of site-specificity, functionality and material presence; and in so doing, complex propositions related to nationalism, identity, and public space are posited.

Exhibition catalogue.