Thursday, September 5, 2013


The artist I chose was found on page 39 of the reading and his name is Alexander Apostol. He was born in Venezuela in 1969, but he lives and works in Madrid, Spain and Caracas, Venezuela. He has had many solo as well as group shows all over the world.  




http://www.guachiman.net/blog/2006/10/12/apostol-en-los-angeles/apostolbig.jpg

The works that I was most interested of his are the ones that are also in the reading which  show buildings with out their doors or windows. These pictures are taken of large modern buildings and then with he help if digital manipulation the windows and doors are erased from the face of the buildings leaving a subtle yet dramatic effect. It is true that at first the buildings may seem normal, but after a long look, something just seems off. there is something that is not quite right with them. this invokes the human curiosity into what that building is all about. What is inside? What was it built for? Why was it built that way? When in fact it in a made up building  and not really built like that. What Alex did here was just take away all the parts that were not art. In doing so he elevated the interest in the pure architecture of the building and really let it be seen for art behind all the human necessities added to the architecture.

I think that to add to this he could have gone a bit further, by taking more away. Making it more simple with less distractions. or even looking beyond the building to the land or city block around it. taking out things that are also distracting like street sings or lamp posts. 


1 comment:

  1. When you were explaining Apostol's work, what I first thought of were the Egyptian pyramids. They are dynamic, yet at the same time, they are not intended for entrance once the work was completed. It made me question that without a physical opening to the outside world, perhaps all architecture would resemble monolithic tombs.
    It's amazing how dramatic the simple removal of windows and doors proves to be.

    ReplyDelete