Goché ©2021

Using site-adjusted installations as my primary mode of practice, I deploy an integrated and focused approach to both theoretical and practical questions pertaining to the nature and impact of materiality specific to the re-occupation of post-industrial spaces. My works provoke a temporal-spatial encounter that reconciles the simultaneous and complex nature of cerebral and corporeal experience. Each inquiry utilizes a range of domains including art, architecture and anthropology as a means of exploring not only what material cultivations can be, but also what they, in fact, do. Based on a series of modulated experimental actions (material modalities), each installation is driven by the nascent possibility of a persistent desire to intercourse with existing material surrounds pursuant a philosophical position that leverages perceptual notions of chiaroscuro - the disposition of light and dark. By extension, the conscious and unconscious, the seen and the unseen, focus and open awareness and the made and re-made are factors in the realm of understanding and producing space. It is a full-scale, three-dimensional methodology that is followed by exploratory drawing and photography as a means to understand its affects (immaterial harmonics).

Peter P. Goché is a practicing architect, artist and educator. He is founder and executive curator of Black Contemporary, a rural field station dedicated to the study of spatial phenomena and perception. Goché has exhibited and lectured on his creative practice and scholarship at many conferences and cultural institutions throughout North America and Western Europe.

schnell/garrett residence Formerly a condominium with a traditional build out replete with colonial trim throughout, the primary enclosure consists of a central entry hall leading to an open studio apartment. The new configuration envelops an office in addition to the hall, kitchen, dining and living room. The existing colonial trim was removed and walls set normal. Reveal trim was installed at all wall plane intersections with doors and floor. A new spatial fragment constructed of Spessart Oak (nativity: Verona, Italy) plywood was installed to frame the dining room. The kitchen cabinetry (by Poliforms) employs a high luster, white face paneling with blind hardware. Full height drapery was used throughout to provide vertical dimension in addition to monitoring light and sound. A new terrazzo floor was installed. As a result, spaces were allowed to converge and dissolve as necessary to support a gradient of material culture. The house is, thus, a system of atmospheric surfaces whereby natural light is incident with the distinctive spirit of a people. Designed in collaboration with Projects Contemporary Furniture and McClure Construction.

rypma residence Originally home to Turnholm & Larson Grocer, this ca. 1880 two-story, parti-wall building in Des Moines’ East Village is neighbor to a consortium of boutiques and downtown residences. This enclosure consists of the original building and two separate turn of the century additions. Goché inclusions llc recently completed code updating of the building and design of the upper level apartment. Our charge was to convert the second level spaces into a single residential unit. Within these spaces we sought to shape a new sequence of areas associated with the occupants routine domestic practices and, thereby, create conditions that cultivate a way of life that is spatially individuated. This spatial intercourse signifies a distribution of ritualized modes that are interrelated. Contractor: Hildreth Construction.

Caution: Wet Floor “Fundamentals” is the celebrated theme of the 2014 Venice Biennale of Architecture, curated by Rem Koolhaas of the Office of Metropolitan Architecture (OMA). The theme is divided into three exhibitions: Absorbing Modernity 1914-2014, Elements of Architecture and Monditalia. The ISU.CoD.DoA Biennale Session consisted of a two-day student workshop that addressed the second of the Biennale themes (Elements of Architecture) and a one-day colloquium that addressed the first of the themes (Absorbing Modernity 1914-2014).
Of the ‘elements’ of architecture, the ISU.CoD.DoA workshop focused on the fundamental ‘floor’ – architecture's topographic surface — as something more than a flattened space on a denatured field. The workshop, led by Peter Goché, Cameron Campbell and Mitchell Squire, considered both the Giardini and the Arsenale exhibitions as sites for survey and analysis. With fifty design, interior design, and architecture students, we generated a new finished floor that elevates our understanding of the performative actions that occur on this, the most elemental surface of architecture. In the end, this temporal installation served as an architectural intervention not unlike the admonitory note laid out by a custodian to draw our attention to a near-invisible condition of the plane before us, “Caution: Wet Floor.”

Eliel's Hutch "Eliel's Hutch" was part of the Halston and Warhol: Silver and Suede opening reception at the Des Moines Art Center's Art Meets Fashion week. It was the central dressing pavilion for the Art Center's pop-up boutique. It was named after Eliel Saarinen, the architect who designed the orginal 1948 Art Center building. The work consists of three separate rooms nested in a series. Fabricated in the College of Design's CNC shop and assembled on site, the work is constructed of blue iso-foam and bent steel framing. The resulatant spaces and aggregate form allow for a sequence of discoveries while the public drifts in and out of the configuration. Assembly assistance provided by James Trower.

culture carriage is a staging developed for Artstop 2012 (a public art exhibition sponsored by Artstop in partnership with the Greater Des Moines Public Art Foundation) on Meredith Corporation's campus in the Western Gateway district of Des Moines, Iowa. The intention here was to blur the threshold between the public space of the sidewalk and the private grounds of Meredith Corporation. In an effort to do so, a constructed temporary carriage was placed in the space of a niche (the area between the serpentine retaining wall and the edge of the public walk) whereby passersby might situate themselves. The work consists of an accumulation of dimensional lumber and an artifact associated with observed uses of the site by the local homeless community.

encloister

With whispers in foreign tongue, childhood footsteps encircle. Seated at the travertine inlet, the hand traces over previous illuminations beneath baldachins hollow. Mental mutterings are accompanied by the intonation of a labored ascent. Overhead, Francesca sorts cutlery.
– illuminated text

Encloister, a site-specific art installation, was developed as a matter of repeated visits to Chiostro della Bramante in Rome. This chiostro, or cloister, was commissioned by the pontifcate of Julius II in 1504. The Holy Father hired Donato Bramnate to design this small cloister as an addition to the existing church of Santa Maria della Pace. This atmosphere contains the collective memory of repeated human celebrations. The installation is comprised of a single umbrella that serves as a visual measure of individual presence. The routine gestural occupation of the interior loggia and courtyard consisted of a bodily deployment of self in a monastic walked that inscribed and culminated in the production of an illuminated text while seated in the center of the ‘physical’ space.

guesta site-specific inquiry, is a conceptual re-inhabitation of an empty corncrib in Madison County, Iowa. The specificity of the work stems from personal interaction with the site’s social, cultural and historic conditions. The inquiry began by reinserting 3000 guest checks (evidence of consumption bearing the type of food eaten on a particular occasion) back into the system of consumption. Each check was crumpled and flattened prior to attachment along one side of the grain alley. A system of steel rods and candle wicking was used to amplify the depth of the work in order to embrace the viewer as occupant in its composition. The work, then, is a reinsertion of the very product in the environment that engendered its existence.

[See “Re Fuse” in New Art Examiner Jan/Feb 2002 and “Guest” in Iowa Architect Issue no. 02:241]

+39 Italian Restaurant, Market & Cantina is located in the G.W. Jones automotive showroom and workshop at 1430 Locust Street, Des Moines, Iowa, Project was conceived as a sophisticated environment calibrated to compliment an authentic Italian menu and historic 1920 interior. Built to house a Delco-Light generator showroom, distribution center, and assembly/repair workrooms, the building soon after was adapted as an automobile showroom with rear workrooms.

of, a site-specific inquiry is the excavation of an ideological framework for metaphysical existence. The specificity of the work stems from personal interaction with the site’s social, cultural and historic conditions. The inquiry began by simply placing wax tablets in a pile at the intersection of two control joints in the concrete floor of the old warehouse. The arrangement of tablets was covered with a muslin cloth and marked with an elevated candlewick gauge. Lead shot was then placed in varying amounts beside the arrangement. The muslin was replaced with a successive series of gauze castings referred to as chrysalises. This creative sequence was followed by the development of an optic tapestry and a photographic essay in conjunction with a visual critique by Mitchell Squire. An exhibition of the tapestry and photographic essay was exhibited at the Bauhaus Gallery in Des Moines, Iowa.

[See “Drift” in Iowa Architect Issue No. 02:241]

ov course

, a cultural inclusion, is a buildup of mundane matter (a table, its cloth, cutlery, feed sacks, grocery bags, and burlap) associated with the mealtime ritual. The material culture occupied a gallery space measuring 16 by 40 feet. A staging area consisting of plate steel defined an area of intimacy within the galleries confines in which to engage the table and its measure. The measure, a rhythmical arrangement of steel bar stock set two feet on center, provided an extension of the table setting. An audio recording represented the presence of five Midwestern storytellers at the table.

The cultural references emerging in this work result in an experience that is nostalgic. Through the buildup of mundane matter, the occupant is confronted with the ponderous burden of dealing with its significance. They are to comprehend the expression based on their prior mealtime experience and its relationship with the direct sensuous matter (the offering) of the installation This work was exhibited at Karolyn Sherwood Gallery in Des Moines,

Iowa in 2005.

[See “Alternative: ov course” in Iowa Architect Issue No. 05:250]

drift

was a performance art installation developed specifically for the Maytag Reflecting Pool at the Des Moines Art Center as part of the Iowa Artist 2000 exhibition. The silent performance consisted of casting 100 wax tablets into the water and wading out into the shallow pool to light them. The work incorporated (and magnified) the space of the site and created a private, contemplative experience for my audience and me.
The conceptual aspect of this exploration focuses on the sentimental nature of candles as a matter of developing a scene of intimacy within a voyeuristic environment. The site was transformed into an arena in which the audience was invited to be actively present. It was a charged environment that offers immersion in its visual and perceptual challenges. The viewer, by reciprocal examination, becomes aware of his/her personal presence and its coincidence with relation to the referent material and attendant.

[See “Drift” in Iowa Architect Issue No. 01:238]

pallet print is part of an extended body of work focused on the production of nuance within the genre of sculpture and printmaking. It is a combined production using packaging material (brown paper) as a canvas for a set of related marks accumulated over time. The composition consists of gravity pressed lithography and water stains in the context of a set of logistical markings (print and label). Most recently, the drawing has been placed onto its original host carriage – a pallet.

the picnic

is a state funded art commission for Patrol Post No. 12 on Interstate 80 near Stockton, Iowa. The table assembly was designed and constructed in collaboration with Mitchell Squire and Marcelo Pinto. Our goal was to allow the public to take a break from driving, and reflect on the complexity of the interstate against the serenity of the earth’s horizon.

The assembly consists of a concrete pedestal, a cantilevered flitch beam, mahogany top and mahogany grade beams. The artful assembly seats three individuals situated before a ubiquitous strip of interstate highway. Our underlying premise was to develop a support system for reflection and discourse regarding the State Patrol and its turf. It remains on site as an artifact that engendered dialogue and reflection between the patrol and its public via a local newspaper article that discounted its artistry.

[See “Clinical Examination” in Iowa Architect Issue No. 98:227]

vault

is a site-specific installation that seeks to develop an ideological critique of metaphysical existence based on human sentience. Developed in the confines of the city receiving vault at Woodland Cemetery, the work was presented to the public on June 9, 2007. Its manifestation is based on the desire to unfold a cultural view of the world through the re-insertion of rite in a long since vacant setting originally constructed for the temporary interment of passed lives.

Essential to this place setting was the accompaniment and arrangement of a performance sequence including an acoustic atonement of the measure, placement of the baldachin, the recital of an incantare and a requiem (Vocalise by Sergei Rachmaninoff) performed by concert violinist; Caleb Polashek. In this way, the viewer entered into a full sensory experience and corresponding recognition of self. What remains and is contained, as a result, is the collective memory of repeated human celebration specific to this place.

water hutch is part of an ongoing inquiry focused on the production of ethno-specific research assemblies. Reminiscent of the many waterways that meander through the Midwest, the work consists of a sinuous line made up of three oxbows. The constituent forms are constructed of built up dimensional lumber. The set of parts serve as an ambiguous measure by which people situate themselves. It might best be understood as a set of objects or trace that indicates the presence of, and makes clearly recognizable, its context as referent rather than source or setting. It operates metaphorically as an open set of shelves onto which people, and thereby, memories accumulate. As a consideration of the social phenomenon associated with the hutch, a time lapse video was developed. This work was exhibited at The Bemis Center for the Arts, the Soap Factory and the University of Northern Iowa Gallery of Art. The work is now part of the Faegre Baker Daniel permanent collection (Space designed by Substance Architecture).