Heidi Bucher's Architectural Skinnings at Parasol Unit London Retrospective

A retrospective of Swiss artist Heidi Bucher's work at Parasol Unit in London features her distinctive 'Häutungen' or skinnings—latex membranes peeled from architectural surfaces. The exhibition includes Kleines Glasportal, Bellevue Kreuzlingen (1988), a latex sheet imprinted with a glass doorframe from a Swiss psychiatric hospital, suspended by nine wires. Other works include Borg (1976), a doorway epidermis coated with mother-of-pearl powder, and Fenster mit Läden und Schindeln (1988), capturing shutters and shingles. Bucher's practice involves applying wet latex to buildings, then removing the dried skin to preserve architectural imprints. Her 1979 Frottage series presents graphite rubbings of garments instead of the objects themselves. The film Hautraum (1981) shows a 'skinroom' of latex walls swinging from a crane, while four Weissleimhaus (1976–83) are fragile 'glue houses' made of foam, textile, and gauze under acrylic cases. Bucher's work explores liminal spaces between inside and outside, inspired by Gaston Bachelard's concept of the 'half-open' from The Poetics of Space (1958). The exhibition ran from 19 September to 9 December 2018, as reviewed in the January & February 2019 issue of ArtReview.