Reading Comprehension_7

"By the Skin of our Teeth" (Diagram).

Before I joined this major, I used to think of art as something that was exclusively aesthetic, but I realize now that it reaches a larger scope and encompasses any form of expression simply for the sake of expression.  In the work of Deborah Grant’s, “By the Skin of our Teeth” the relatively simple masses in the foreground are contradicted by the miniscule complexity of the hieroglyphic blur of backdrop ink patterns.  This creates a simultaneous experience of balance and contrast; balance in the interplay of mass and void while contrast in the dispersion of simple forms with complex undertones. 

In this post-modern age, there is much inspiration taken from the visual arts in the formation of architecture.  Roth states, “There is a need for images, for emotion in architecture, a need for architecture to speak to people” (Roth pg 567).  Where once architecture was a field of function, and art a field of emotion, it is no longer satisfactory to consider each its own entity.  Furthermore, the solidity of the sun and people within the painting represent an idealistic view of firmness I believe is generically associated with good architecture while the chaotic complexity of the permeating ink mural justifies the expressionistic side of art.  There becomes almost a sense that art not only plays a role in architecture but the same inspiration takes hold of art.

One form of design that helped blend the boundaries of what we consider architecture and art is deconstructivism, an almost philosophical approach which, “means burrowing deep, to find out what unconscious premises a text is based on and what the blind in the author’s eye cannot see” (Roth pg 600).  Furthermore, it is “an architecture of disruption, dislocation, deflection, deviation, and distortion intended to promote a feeling of unease, disquiet, and disorientation. (Roth pg 601).  A prime example of such an ideology is followed in the Industrial office buildings by Gunter Domenig in Austria where, “a skeletal frame of concrete beams….stretches out from the finished enclosure, as if construction has been interrupted” (Roth pg 598).  A sense of deconstructionism can be clearly seen in Walter Barker’s, “Friday Night at the Ozark Airdome” where forms are deconstructed and blended through a myriad of colors so that only the contrast in the pigments allow one to distinguish the separate forms.  Moreover, the constant repetition of colors spread throughout the painting offers a sense of unity.

In a generation looking past the frigidness of modernism, this exhibit helps bring to light that architecture, more than ever, is trying to emulate the delight in form of art so that architecture, in its own right, becomes a form of visual enlightenment as well as structurally sound.

"Friday Night at the Ozark Airdome" (Rough Sketch).

Industrial Office Building by Gunter Domenig in Austria (Deconstructionism).