Our studio is pleased to share Kate Beck's inspiring work that led us to the design of the Site Pavilion.
Abandon (detail) . graphite on paper, 50.8 x 50.8 cm, 2011 . Kate Beck
I Dwell, You Dwell . poured oil on aluminum, 139.7 x 86.4 cm, 2010 . Kate Beck
Modulation 01.5 . graphite on paper, on aluminum, 30.5 x 30.5 cm, 2011 . Kate Beck
Poetics (Deep) . graphite on paper, 50.8 x 50.8 cm, 2012 . Kate Beck
N 43.71453
W 70.00282
"The mind cannot always live in a 'divine ether'. The lark cannot always sing at heaven's gate. There must exist a place to spring from -- a refuge from the heights, an anchorage of thought.."
- Wallace Stevens
I am a painter.
And maybe even, when I am lucky, a poet.
I live and work by the sea on a quiet shore on the coast of Maine. Here within an extremity of elements, my perceptions are dictated by the very real architectonics of nature -- waves, reflections, refractions, meanderings -- vital motions -- delineating and enveloping an existence. I have been beneath these skies, walking these beaches, swimming in this cold salt water my entire life. This is my place.
Two years ago, I made the acquaintance of Inês Martins de Brito and Gilberto Rodriguez, principals in the studio of Brito.Rodriguez in Lisbon, Portugal. I was instantly smitten by the kindred devotion to place and to humanity as evidenced in their eloquently integrated expressions of architecture and landscape. In these ensuing months, we have entered into a collaborative project together, designed purely around the axis of personal response to our shared sensibilities and works, the sensory experience of place bound by a far-reaching sea.
As the culmination of our collaborative project, Brito.Rodriguez has designed Site Pavilion for me, an off-shore pavilion on the outer reaches of Jaquish Island, here in Harpswell, Maine. This single, reaching architectural gesture manifests in contrasting materials of steel, water and bedrock creating a place of intimacy, reflection and contemplation amongst the extreme elements of nature and the sea.
I am most honored and privileged to share in this extraordinary sensorial experience which speaks directly to me, and of me, embracing the components of vital motion that I strive to attain in my large painted and drawn surfaces.
Architecture as an emotive embodiment of light and land mass; an interstice, perhaps, between the collective whole and the resounding context.
I am always attracted to the white field.
The painting is always whole.
Thank you, Inês and Gilberto.
-Kate Beck
WhiteSpot Studio
Harpswell, Maine USA
February 2015
A place between elements of nature
A path leads one through elements of vegetation towards the edge of the island. A gentle slope pulls you into the ground and the emotion of space is activated by movement and delineated where the sea, bedrock and vegetation all meet.
Reduced to a singular gesture, it is a subtle yet firm intervention, allowing for solitude between walls. A place where a natural pool of water and light are discovered. This is a place of isolation with your thoughts and memories, a small refuge within a remarkable landscape.
The Site Pavilion is a sensorial experience between contrasting materials of steel, water and bedrock, a place open to nature's subtle nuances of fresh light, reflections, scents, air and sounds of crashing waves.
Architecture has emerged from the crevices of the landscape.
The poetics of silence and the emotion in architecture.
A pavilion for the artist Kate Beck.
A sincere thank you to our dear friend Kate, whose work we highly admire and have followed over the years. We look forward to sharing more experiences in the years to come.
Warm regards,
Brito.Rodriguez