Art

I love geometry…

…how it is interpreted by the eye, and how artists and architects over millennia have engaged with perception, to communicate intent that may range from devout to disreputable. From late gothic vaults, Islamic muqarnas, and baroque church plans, to trompe l’oeil stage sets, practical special effects, and fairground sideshows.

It isn’t really about refining geometry to it’s pure essence - I can appreciate that but it’s not what excites me. It is instead about sensation: form, scale and light as a tool for evoking feelings, and for telling stories.

I have been fascinated by the geometric rules that humans have created in order to simulate real life since I was a small child. I can vividly remember the evening when my father first explained to me the concept of perspective drawing (he is an Architect too…) - and ever since I have been exploring the possibilities and testing the limits of established modes of architectural representation.

Even as a child I could intuitively grasp the huge power of perspective to engage the viewer: no training is needed to understand what is depicted, as the means of representation broadly simulates vision. But as time passed I found myself frustrated by its limitations - the straight jacket of the single point of view, the distortions creeping into the periphery. Pre-renaissance modes of composition, and fringe perspective techniques such as those used as the basis of panoramic dioramas hinted at alternative possibilities.