Patterns of Speculation: J MAYER H. joins two modes of exhibiting architecture in a gallery — installation and documentation — to present a unique, hybrid environment. The first solo museum exhibition to focus on this internationally recognized, Berlin-based studio, Patterns of Speculation offers a kind of dreamscape: a chamber of hypnotic imagery in which sound and light are set within a three-dimensional matrix of constructed and graphic elements. Data protection patterns serve as the source material for the installation. These patterns — which are used to conceal information, similar to the lining on the inside of bank envelopes — are translated into different scales and media, from the freestanding modules to frameworks for projected imagery and sound, as well as models for the designs of the depicted buildings. Long a subject of fascination and object of research for J. MAYER H., the patterns are presented here as the precondition or pretext for the studio’s architecture, a code that lies at the core of its design language.

SFMOMA