Tony Fretton: Everything I Saw Became Important — Exhibition Guide
Design is a very compact activity where you’re not sure about what it will do. You work by instinct, and that instinct either unfolds to be something good over time, or it doesn’t. While you know that some things will have an immediate effect, the long-term and cultural effects are things you cannot foresee.
— Tony Fretton
Drawing Matter is pleased to present an exhibition of early projects by the London-based architect Tony Fretton. At the centre of the exhibition are four projects, represented by drawings, models, sketchbooks, and photographs from the Drawing Matter Collection: Mute Records (1986, unbuilt), Lisson Gallery I (1986), Lisson Gallery II (1992), and a competition entry for the Holy Island Buddhist Retreat (1993).
Alongside these, the exhibition includes photographs of the architect’s early performance works with Station House Opera, of which he was a member in the early 1980s, and Get Ready (1981), a series of images documenting Fretton’s morning routine, influenced by the work of American photographers and performance artists. For the first time in over forty years, when it was shown to a small group of students at the Architectural Association, Get Ready is presented with its original audio track.
The exhibition’s title, ‘Everything I Saw Became Important’, is a taken from one of the more than forty sketchbooks used by Fretton while designing the Lisson Gallery between 1982 and 1991. The sketchbooks offer an insight into an important part of the architect’s working process and the development of his positions on design. They are characterised by their dialogue between drawing and annotation, which has made them a valuable teaching tool for Drawing Matter in our work with architecture students and practices.
To extend this dialogue between drawing and writing, we have reproduced texts by Tony Fretton that describe and reflect on the projects on show.
The Drawing Matter team would like to thank Tony Fretton and Benjamin Machin for their contributions to the exhibition.
Download exhibition texts here.
Read more articles published by Drawing Matter on the work of Tony Fretton here.
Drawing Matter’s public programme offers the public opportunities to experience our drawings collection, which is usually only open to researchers by appointment and for student/practice workshops. Events take the form of talks at the archive, workshops by practitioners and open weekends. The programme is led by Kendra Matchett, Martha Cruz, and Matt Page.
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