[03] Art. Julie Mehretu.

City as a fluid and unstable organism. 


'Julie Mehretu's work is a hybrid art form that combines aspects of cartography, architectural drawing, urban planning, and abstract painting. The artist creates energetic compositions via a system of draw lines intersecting and superimposed over coloured planes, diagonals, parallelograms, archways, rendering of staircases, and dashes and circles that marked out unknown topographies. Mahretu's animated urbanscapes are reminiscent of Dutch architect Constant's drawings of Situationist cities, in which structures float above the landscape, leaving two spatial zones in which to conduct life. Mehretu similarly scrutinizes organizing models of urban planning, rejecting the notion that it is possible to impose a rigid structure on something as fluid and unstable as a city and its inhabitants. Understanding cities as more than just collections of buildings and people, she approaches them as psychogeographies that must allow for spontaneous activity and encounters outside the presumed patterns of movement and interaction'
Schwabsky, B., 2004. Vitamin P: New Perspectives in Painting. London, Phaidon Press Limited.

Julie Mehretu. Available at: <http://www.fotopedia.com/albums/oyBD73eDaNk/entries/_QZ2-xjlMTo> [Accessed on 25 Oct]

Bayreuth, Julie Mehretu, 2010. Available at: <http://www.mariangoodman.com/artists/julie-mehretu/#/images/1/> [Accessed on 25 Oct]

[02] Film. Melancholia by Lars von Trier.

The most beautifully rendered end of the world?

Never mind the plot. The visuals were just hypnotic to watch. The images of both Moon and Melancholia illuminating the palatial garden are mesmerising. There is also an amazing visual atmospheric metamorphose as the telluric planet approaches the earth. The colours of scenes are changing to more desaturated and almost frosted turquoise, which in combination with the setting of the palace creates the atmosfere of a fairy tale - apocalypse.

Melancholia, Lars von Trier, 2011. Available at: <http://www.screened.com/melancholia/16-199001/all-images/132-1991884/melancholia_3/131-563834/> [Accessed on 17 Oct]

[01] Literature. 'Eyes of the Skin: Architecture and Senses.'

The Significance of Shadows


'The imagination and day dreaming are stimulated by dim light and shadow. In order to think clearly, the sharpness of vision has to be suppressed, for thoughts travel with an absent-minded and unfocused gaze. Homogenous bright light paralyses the imagination in the same way that homogenisation of space weakens the experience of being, and wipes away the sense of place. The human eye is most perfectly tuned for twilight rater than bright daylight.'
Juhani Pallasmaa, (2005) The Eyes of the Skin: Architecture and Senses. Chichester, John Wiley & Sons. 

Caravaggio, The Incredulity of Saint Thomas, 1601-2 Italy. Available at: <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Caravaggio_-_The_Incredulity_of_Saint_Thomas.jpg> [Accessed 17 Oct]

It all began with this statement.