‘Altered Sites’ was an exhibition curated by George Charman and David R J Stent to accompany the symposium ‘Altered Sites: On Psychedelic Architecture’ in May 2023. The symposium and exhibition aimed to explore experimental and critical approaches to architectural form through explorations of built and/or imagined structures as sites of alterity. The presentations used notions of psychedelic experience and expansive consciousness to engage with site as a potentially productive form of difference, dynamism, and otherness.
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When Dr. Humphry Osmond suggested the term ‘psychedelic’ to Aldous Huxley in 1956, as part of their enthused discussions around the emancipatory usage of hallucinogens, he drew upon the compound etymology of the Greek psykhe [mind] and deloun [to make visible, to reveal]. Aspects of this conjunction between an interior world and a tangible, external counterpart is at the heart of this event. The meeting point for such a dialogue is proposed as ‘architecture’, yet is not limited to designed or constructed buildings but more as a dynamic space between the structured and the unformed. ‘Altered Sites: On Psychedelic Architecture’ explores structures – buildings, objects, images, writing, creative practices – in which gestures of inversion, reversal, involution, projection, expansion, collapse, and so on, remain present.
An intellectual pioneer of hallucinogenic experience, Huxley occupies an unexpected place in the founding of West Dean College. It was from Huxley that poet and College founder Edward James sought advice on setting up his utopian educational community as early as 1939, an organisation which continues to support traditional and experimental art and craft practices to this day. James was also inspired by Huxley’s experimentation with psychedelics in relation to his own experiences with teonanácatl mushrooms in Mexico in 1957, not as a recreational drug but as a means to creatively expand consciousness.
Photographs by George Charman
List of Works (see map below)
1. Edward James – The Little City of Seclusia (1957) Oil on canvas. West Dean College Collection (WDCC)
2. George Charman – Formwork #1 and Formwork #2 (2023) Felt pen, Posca pen, coloured pencil on paper
3. Unknown [Plutarco Gastélum] – Studio of Pavel Tchelitchew (New York City) (1945) Colour photograph (WDCC)
4. Eugene Berman – Architectural Fantasy (1935) Ink on paper (WDCC)
5. Edward James – To the Earth (c.1943) Gouache on collotype (WDCC)
6. Mark West – Hotel Edward Hopper [Court Interior, Lobby I, Lobby II] (2007) Digital prints on Somerset Satin
7. Unknown [Edward James] – Photogram I & II (c.1943) (WDCC)
8. Adam Wiseman – Arquitectura Libre (2018) Colour photograph
9. Adam Wiseman – Arquitectura Libre (2018) Colour photograph
10. David R J Stent – These Weak Kindnesses (Crosshairs & Local Ceremonies) (2023) Acrylic, spray paint, ink, coloured pencil, salt, ash, gesso on board
11. Cecilia Charlton – First, You Don't Know What You Don't Know [Ocean series, Sunlight Zone] (2023) Hand-woven cotton and wool yarn. Courtesy of Candida Stevens Gallery
12. Cecilia Charlton – Then, You Know What You Don't Know [Ocean Series, Twilight Zone] (2023) Hand-woven cotton and wool yarn. Courtesy of Candida Stevens Gallery
13. Cecilia Charlton – Next, You Know What You Know [Ocean Series, Midnight Zone] (2023) Hand-woven cotton and wool yarn. Courtesy of Candida Stevens Gallery
14. Cecilia Charlton – And Then, You Don't Know What You Know [Ocean Series, Abyssal Zone] (2023) Hand-woven cotton and wool yarn. Courtesy of Candida Stevens Gallery
15. Pavel Tchelitchew – The Skull [The Crystal Grotto] (1940) Gouache on paper (WDCC)
16. Vitrine:
a. Eugene Berman – Untitled ‘Capriccio’ (1935-37) Ink on paper (WDCC)
b. Eugene Berman – Triumphal Arch (1935) Ink on paper (WDCC)
c. Gerald Rebaudo – Untitled (1982) Pen on paper (WDCC)
d. Marcel Duchamp – Rotoreliefs (1935) Offset lithographs (WDCC)
17. Mark West – Hotel Edward Hopper [Seaside Fac.] (2007) Digital print on Somerset Satin
18. David R J Stent – These Weak Kindnesses (The Ballard Twins & Untitled) (2023) Acrylic, spray paint, ink, coloured pencil, salt, ash, gesso on board
19. Unknown [Edward James] – Photograph of Pavel Tchelitchew painting on the balcony of studio (New York City) (1945) Colour photograph (WDCC)
20. George Charman – Formwork #3 (2023) Felt pen, Posca pen, coloured pencil on paper
21. Mark West – Hotel Edward Hopper [Colour 3 Courtyard] (2007) Digital print on Somerset Satin
22. Melanie Smith – Fifteen Minutes of Sublime Meditation (2020–2021) Video
