Hannah Waldron

I think this is a really great interpretation of a space. She was producing work for an exhibition on the LSE campus in response to the building of St Phillips. From researched the history and passageways of the building and converted this information into a long vertical weaving. I think the way the detail is hemmed into the long structure is really effective. She has almost converted the basic shapes into codes, which are both informative and beautiful.

More more.

"To look at the cross-section of any plan of a big city is to look at something like the section of a fibrous tumor." Frank lloyd Wright, American Architect.

Interactive environment?

Using the space as a soothing urban environment?

Working on psychological levels?

An exhilarating social environment for a person who is alone?

Some thoughts

"All great art is born of the metropolis" Ezra Pound

This blog has been set up as a reflective exercise to document my experiences, daily thoughts and work. For me this seemed like the easiest way to map my ideas through out the project.

I am already feeling slightly lost as it seems like a massive task to undertake. I think the key will be focusing on one or a few small elements, for example heights of buildings, sounds, conversations etc, otherwise it may be too overwhelming and the final construction will end up confused and a strange mess of ideas.

I’ve come across a few things, which relate quite nicely to this project and have given me a few things to think about. I was shown this by a friend.

The mini ‘city’ is made entirely of staples. Despite using such limited materials you get a real sense of depth and proportion- beauty in simplicity. I also stumbled on this image of a troglodyte village in Azerbaijanon on atlas obscura, which I thought was pretty amazing.

I have also been looking at work of ‘Invisible cities’. The image below illustrates one of the invisible cities named Ersilia.

Here is a description, which explains it much better than I can:

“In Ersilia, to establish the relationships that sustain the city’s life, the inhabitants stretch strings from the corners of the houses, white or black or gray or black-and-white according to whether they mark a relationship of blood, of trade, or authority, agency. When the strings become so numerous that you can no longer pass among them, the inhabitants leave: the houses are dismantled; only the strings and their supports remain. From a mountainside, camping with their household goods, Ersilia’s refugees look at the labyrinth of taut strings and poles that rise in the plain. That is the city of Ersilia still, and they are nothing.

They rebuild Ersilia elsewhere. They weave a similar pattern of strings which they would like to be more complex and at the same time more regular than the other. Then they abandon it and take themselves and their houses still farther away.Thus, when travelling in the territory of Ersilia, you come upon the ruins of the abandoned cities, without the walls which do not last, without the bones of the dead which the wind rolls away: spiderwebs of intricate relationships seeking a form.”

I think the reason I’m drawn to this piece of work is because they have focused on a specific personal element. It’s emotive but undertaken in a very analytical manner.