Origins

Origins was commissioned by the Royal Academy of Arts for its home at Burlington House. As part of the its 250 year anniversary, the RA removed a number of artworks including ceiling paintings, sculptures and wall canvasses for refurbishment. Origins was conceived as a series of new, temporary artworks to replace the removed works in key spaces such as the main entrance, staircase and Sackler Galleries.

The new installations reflected on the content of the absent artworks and their relationship to the pedagogic role of the RA in developing British architecture. They also drew on the various origin myths of architecture represented in the RA’s collection, to develop a contemporary allegory of architecture.

The exhibition was divided into five main sections each of which dealt with a specific aspect of architecture: Construction, Space, Shelter, Decoration and Precedent, each of which related to the spaces they inhabited and together formed an episodic exhibition spread throughout the RA. The final section was a display of drawings in the RA’s Architecture Space.

Origins was designed and conceived as one of a series of projects undertaken by Ordinary Architecture, a collaboration with designer Elly Ward.