CITY BLOCKS

There is nothing that better defines the 20th century modernist architectural ethos than the high-rise apartment block. These imposing structures dominate the fabric of our cities and illustrate the basic characteristics of modern urban life. Their repetitive, geometric motifs mirror the mechanisation and depersonalization of modern industrial society. In the photographic series, City Blocks, these high-rise apartment complexes have been reduced to a uniform surface which forms an impenetrable wall. This emphasis on the surface, coupled with the lack of contextual detail (glimpses of sky or trees, for example), leaves the spectator with feelings of no-escape and claustrophobia.

Each image is made up of several units of architectural detail which are repeated in a grid formation, thus reconstructing the façade of the original apartment building. The final image, which can be repeated any number of times (depending on the desired format), is not a photograph of the original building, but is built, block by block, to construct an interpretation of the high-rise. The added colour which forms an overlay on the architectural modules, serves several functions: one, the colour heightens the artificial, impersonal aspect of the modernist aesthetic; and two, the colour introduces a note of variation in the rigid structure, inviting the eye to play over the surface of the image.

The modernist apartment complex, in essence, forms a grid which frames our lives, literally boxing us into uniform compartments. They delimit and define our individual living spaces, as well as create urban environments which determine how we interact with each other as a society.