The Restaurant At The End of The Universe Crossed Out World^-W022

Except from the Restaurant’s Future Islands Catalogue Image:

Act 1. There was once an island of unqualified abundance that chose to subjugate its sovereignty to the desires of other islands in the name of progress. Some argued that the Island was too remote from the others, who, being much closer to each could always depend on proximity for relevance. They believed that for the island to survive it must provide the necessary and essential things required by its distant neighbors. Others suggested instead that their remoteness was their primary asset. That the Other Islanders would come simply because the island was exotic and that, as a consequence, it was vitally necessary to service the demands of these visitors without whom the island would be lost. Weirdly, in spite of the obvious incompatibility of their illogical arguments these groups inhabited a delirium of agreement: whether people came or things left autonomy was both undesirable and (thank God) impossible; the Other Islanders would decide and they, blessed with fecundity and absolved of responsibility, would simply ‘make the most of it’.

Excerpt from review of Future Islands at theAdam Art Gallery by Juston Paton:

The final work, and perhaps the most conceptually revealing, is entitled The Restaurant at the End of the Universe World. This speculative work commissioned for the exhibition, is in fact the miniature materialisation of another proposal for the New Zealand pavilion at the 2016 Venice Architecture Biennale. Intended to be sited in the Arsenale lagoon, the design is for a man-made floating ‘island’, featuring a replica Athfield turret enveloped with whakairo motifs, which serves as a diving board for a swimming pool below. Above, blazing red neon lettering spells out the project’s title and gives the room an apocalyptic red glow. A collaboration between artists and architects calling themselves IMPORT_EXPORT, the work deftly critiques the role of the Biennale as a platform for nationalistic promotion while reflecting on how architecture might be used to this end. It is the antithesis of a broad-brush, all-inclusive showcase, and presents a critical, if somewhat pessimistic, position (you’ll need a magnifying glass to decipher the brilliant ‘For Construction’ documentation in the catalogue). The inclusion of this project is in stark contrast to the non-committal nature of the remainder of the exhibition but does, at least, reveal a willingness to self-reflect.

Excerpt from Far Pavilion:

The curators may have taken their textual renunciation too far in privileging mood over meaning: some visitors wanted to know more about the caption-less models no display and the exhibition concept being perused. In the absence of explanation, the presence of herds of cows on some islands, vestigial expressions of an undeveloped argument about New Zealand architecture’s relationship to dairy (over)production, seemed whimsical; the projection mapping of an island’s drowning, although well executed, came across as discordantly pessimistic; and the installation piece The Restraint at the End of The Universe [sic] World, which was a critique of national exhibitions in general and New Zealand’s official international persona in particular, read as an ironic coda to the very exhibition which housed it.

Excerpt from ArchitectureNZ review of Future Islands:

The Restaurant at the end of The Universe [sic] World, by Import ExportTM, is a bold neon-clad installation which, more seriously, questions how New Zealand is seen on the global stage – is it “a picturesque tourist destination, a pliable barrier-free trading partner, or a remote green Eden?”. This was a topical and thought-provoking response to the overall concept.

Excerpt from the Future Islands Catalogue interview with NZ@Venice 2016 Director Charlse Walker:

[John Walsh] "The material in Future Islands is primarily architectural. Except for one exhibition element titled The Restaurant at the End of The Universe World. That work amounts to a sort of critique of the idea of national representation, and implicitly, one would think, of New Zealand’s participation in an event such as the Venice Architecture Biennale, which is organised around national pavilions. Why did you include this project in you exhibition?"

[Charles Walker] "I wouldn’t agree that this project is not primarily architectural. As part of the curatorial process we made an open call for proposals for a speculative ‘Last Island’ that addressed issues we hadn’t thought of, or accommodated projects that we hadn’t seen. In the end we chose two projects – The Restaurant and He Wai: A song [pages 74-75], a sound-based work that draws on the oral traditions of Oceania to mediate relationships between place, spirit and human agency.

"We see The Restaurant as a critique of architecture’s rhetorical role in the representation of New Zealand as exotic by various interest groups that champion the country as tourist destination, trading partner, or ‘clean, green’ Eden. The project draws on a polemical tradition that will be recognised in Europe but which is rarer in New Zealand, and asks questions about national borders and legal jurisdiction in our post-colonial, ‘post-national’ corporate economy. It also reminded me of Mark Twain’s surprise on visiting New Zealand to find ‘it is not close to anything, but lies itself, out in the water’. And the model is very beautifully made".

Made in collaboration with Dominic Glamuzina