Archives for the Month of February, 2011

The Diaroma Paintings of Jerry Judah

Painting - Jerry Judah
Painting – Jerry Judah

Jerry Judah’s sculptural relief paintings depict haphazard structures, shanti-town sprawls, decaying settlements and the temple complex ruins. Taking inspiration from the landscapes of India, his monochromatic dioramas are generated from recollections of the ornate temple architecture he encountered there growing up as a child.

Many of the works appear to have been generated by a kind of emergent accretion, perhaps mimicking the organic growth of unplanned towns and urban self-organisation. The ‘settlements’ are surfaced by a multiplicity of recognisable elements – aerial masts, satellite dishes and phone lines.

Judah’s imaginary landscapes (ften dystopian) are evocative of the rhizomatic architectural propositions of Lebbeus Woods. The structures are also reminiscent of algorithmically generated constructions and landscapes panoramas that have been defined by procedural techniques.

Originally spotted at Algorithmic Worlds
Related: Darlene Charneco – Dioramic imaginings

The Transilluminated Drawings of Bette Burgoyne

Whisper Vapour - Bette Burgoyne
Whisper Vapour – Bette Burgoyne

Bette Burgoyne’s pencil drawings are phantasmagorical reinterpretations of observed and recollected natural phenomena – clouds formations, lichen colonies, mycological growths, and the reflections of light on liquids. Working with a while pencil on black paper, the dense accretions of nebulous lines create a luminous layered effect. Components of dynamic growth, transfiguration, and supernatural movement are implicated.

A post on Burgoyne’s work at A Journey Round My Skull reveals the creative process involved:

‘Similar to jazz improvisation, I begin with a thematic structure while encouraging form and movement to emerge by rubbing and scratching with my pencil. For example, I conceive a drawing with a flexible construct in mind of “smoke” or “waves” or “reflection” and elaborate from there. Impressions from my subconscious collection of trees, water, minerals, and clouds are defined by applying veils and layers of visual information’

A Journey Round My Skull goes on to note similarities between Burgoyne’s drawings and certain works from the surrealists period – The photograms of Max Ernst and the drawings of Hans Bellmer, for example. We are also reminded of certain algorithmic topologies with web-like surfaces appearing to conceal recursive motifs – directing us to three-dimensional fractal forms such as Daniel White’s Mandlebulb.

The Constructivist Cosmologies of Richard Lippold

Ad Astra - Richard Lippold
Ad Astra – Richard Lippold

Dataisnature encountered the work of the American artist, Richard Lippold, while on a visit to the MOMA in NYC last year. Works such as 5 Variations Within a Sphere and Variation Number 7 Full Moon, created in the late 40’s and early 50’s are intricate abstract geometric sculptures using wire as the main medium. Both pieces are modest in scale compared to the larger works he created for public spaces, the lobbies of international institutions and performance spaces. The most well-know large scale construction, The Sun, commissioned by New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art, used nearly two miles of wire filled with 22-carat gold and was held together by 14,000 hand-welded joints.

An important aspect of Lippold’s work is the interplay of light on reflective metals and wires to create complex spatial illusions within precisely defined utopian constructivist forms.

Considering the recent importance being given to Lippolds work, it’s unfortunate to find very little information about this artist available on the web. The Richard Lippold Foundation website seems to be permanently unreachable. Fortunately Flickr throws up some great images of his work – particularly Ad Astra, a 115ft high double spire bearing wires in star-like configurations, created in 1976 for the National Air and Space Museum in Washington.

Further reading:
Wired: Preserving the Installations of Richard Lippold