Expansion of Research
Giovanni Battista Piranesi
Giovanni Battista Piranesi was an artist I visited whilst in the second year, so I was already familiar with his work, however, I felt that it was important that I revisited the pieces within this unit. His architectural drawings resonate with my practice, the chaotic unity is something I rely on to build up my work. In a way it is surreal, with towering features and stairs leading to nowhere, this, in turn, must mean that the work I am completing myself also holds surreal connotations. There is a resounding sense of movement, using repetitive shapes and curving lines, leading your eyes around the composition. Although there is no colour to the drawings as I wish to add to mine to create a stained glass effect, I feel that they have similar features to the drawings/framework I created.
Building Plans
I found looking at building plans and layout really interesting, especially the ones regarding large buildings such as cathedrals. The plans for York Minster show the features of the building in a more architectural sense rather than simply photographing single parts. The expanse of the building is extremely apparent when looking from a birdseye view.
Not only did I look at the building plans, I also found the window plans for York Minster and other Cathedrals, these were really interesting as they mapped out the location of each window. The visual was something I might consider incorporating into my work.
Patricia Mackinnon-Day
I came across this artist whilst reading a book about architecture and how it is celebrated within art, using different processes and methods. Her work called out to me in many ways, although there isn't colour as in my work, the way she displayed her pieces as interesting and clever. In this particular work, Marking Time, Mackinnon-Day was commissioned to create a permanent installation within one of Exeter's most historic landmarks. She then perused the old building plans, taking into account the layout of the site and made the decision to build glass replicas of the doorways, trapping artefacts from the site inside. She also uses lights underneath in order to illuminate the displays.
Her work led me to consider the fact that windows are one of the most delicate parts of a building and therefore are usually the first things to deteriorate.
Pablo Bronstein
Pablo Bronstein was also among the artists I researched. The fact that he is a postmodernist artist working in a style which suggests an earlier time period is fascinating. For example, this piece, Relocation of Temple Bar is purposely made to look aged from the muted colour to the framing. The building itself is a replica of one of London’s medieval gates and has been dismantled and rebuilt several times since its initial installation in 1879.
Sam Jacob
When researching into Pablo Bronstein I came across the artist Sam Jacob, his work immediately reminded me of the building plans I had looked at earlier in my research, however, unlike those old plans, these had colours. The patterns were interesting and they reminded me of an areal view. As an architect, it isn't surprising that his artwork reminds me of building plans. His work combined with the window plans makes me want to find a way to incorporate some kind of linework like this into my own work.
Edward Allington
I discovered the work of Edward Allington whilst at the Henry Moore Institute exhibition in February and immediately saw the links between our work and concepts. His artwork is mainly installation of sculptures and drawings most of which seem to be architectural. He takes random details from buildings and focuses on them rather than the building in its entirety. They are also similar to some of the sculptural works by Bronstein.
Some of his other pieces on display were drawings of architectural elements, these were then moved around and photographed in different areas. This was an idea I had considered using for my own work, however, I didn't end up doing so.
