Havana Case Study (Version II) is an expanded version of the installation presented in New York in 2016. This version includes a series of vitrines and models that present the viewer with a detailed account—using documents and photographs from the architect’s and the State Department archives, trade journals, and material samples—of the planning and construction of the 1953 US embassy in Havana. But these vitrines are mostly covered by a collection of loose photographs and documents, preserved in transparent archival envelopes. Viewers are invited to sift through and examine this second layer of material which documents the extravagant propaganda campaigns by both the Cuban and US governments that have been staged around this building since the two countries’ break in diplomatic relations in 1961.

Documentation:
Installation views at Neubauer Collegium, University of Chicago, IL. Curated by Jacob Proctor. Photography by Robert Chase Heishman

Havana Case Study (Version II)

Terence Gower, 2017

Balcony (sculpture): acid-etched rebar, 775 x 139.7 x 149.86 cm; Political Services: 6 framed collages, 86.36 x 60.96 cm each; Module (sculpture): enamel on steel with wicker, 77.5 x 70 x 75 cm; Vitrines: documents, journals, photographs, fabric and stone samples, three museum board models.

Link: Neubauer Collegium

Review: The Seen Journal

Review: New City