Theatrum Orbis Terrarum

Working with the standard media of architectural representation – plans, sections, models, and collages – spatio-architectonic fragments from various historical epochs are manipulated and montaged into compositions that – through scaling, repetition, contrast, and estrangement – become increasingly absurd. Mediating the sterility of everyday functional space and the sculptural exuberance of representational buildings, the work forges an insight into built reality, uncovering from seeming objectivity and functionalism the existential drama of choreographed designs and spatial contestation. Endless enfilades unfold in monotonous repetition, abandoned scenery flows between harsh, towering buildings … men appear lost, dominated by their built environment. In these scenes, unsettling but familiar situations emerge from a manipulated analysis of architectural references. Ideologically-loaded architecture and the crime scenes of human history are set in relation to one another – confrontational, overlapped, estranged – critically thematizing the mechanisms of intimidation and overwhelming used in the exercise of power. Archetypes and palaces, monuments and landmarks, cathedrals and temples, prisons and camps, fortresses, bunkers and superblocks, are woven into an architectural phantasmagory which, though fictional, are formed from existing designs.