Play House, the first retrospective of Vancouver-based modernist architect Daniel Evan White, opened this month at the Museum of Vancouver. White designed public buildings, pre-fabricated cabins, modest houses, new housing prototypes, and some of the most unique residences in Vancouver throughout his career, which spanned from 1960 to 2012.
Though White never identified with a particular style or group and his work is not easily categorized, the curators showcase some of his most lauded residences and attempt to understand his work in the context of both local and international architecture.
In the 1,800 square foot exhibition — the same square footage as White’s Máté Residence in West Vancouver — and even smaller reception room at the opening reception of Play House, every person looks comfortable and polished. This is partly due to the dress code: whether guests dressed in black or white or both, the dress-code is a preview of the almost entirely black and white exhibition in the next room.
The décor adds to this effect: black and white pins and magnets are scattered from the coat check to the bar and from the interactive children’s table to guest’s lapels. The pins and magnets are black squares with assorted white geometric patterns on them. These, the woman at coat check explains, represent aerial-view reductions of White’s houses.
The dozens of commissioned maquettes (scale models) in the exhibit are white with black accents. The photocopies of floor plans, and most of the photographs pinned to the timeline of his work, are in black and white. Photographs in colour have faded over the past four decades; snippets from recent articles about the architect are in vivid colours, as are the building blocks and instructions at the children’s table. Despite these splashes of colour, there is a refinement to the whole tableau, as though it is black text on a white page.
The textual pieces within the exhibition, which supplement the maquettes and the timeline of the architect’s work, left me with more questions than answers. I was frustrated when I reached a certain passage of text, a biographical tidbit about White, copied for the third time; however, the secondary material on the MOV’s website is informative.
The series of interviews between MOV curator Vivianne Gosselin and guest curators Greg Johnson and Martin Lewis, from the UBC School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture (SALA), expand upon the exhibition. Insights from the three curators, who were present and approachable at the opening, are significant given that there are not many other places to look for information about White. The team worked toward the finished presentation alongside the late White’s office and family; this was, as the curators expressed, an asset to the exhibition.
My frustration about the supplementary text aside, asking questions is the groundwork of studying the lifetime work of an artist in any discipline. This detailed exhibit introduces Vancouverites to one of our outstanding artists, and it will hopefully inspire more studies of his work as well as an appreciation for the architecture he has created in our community.
