Realm... an urban enquiry

I have discovered through the realisation of this exhibition, that the space between the disciplines of fine art and architecture may be defined as an environment wherein the creation of new concepts might be created.

When overlaid onto urban environments both abstract and specific, these concepts are sited and given real context.

My wish at the outset of this collaboration was to investigate whether or not through discussion and practice, the area where fine art and architecture meet could take on a certain level of independence.

Case studies

I selected 3 urban environments to analyze. By analysis I mean being physically present in a space, and drawing what I see. In both the Sea Point Promenade and the Muizenberg Promenade, I had two linear urban elements, typical exponents of the ‘edge condition’. City; promenade; sea. To bind them, I called upon an unusual area of Woodstock, a ‘land island’ of sorts named ‘Cavendish Square’.

Gabrielle Raaff

The work of Gabrielle Raaff investigates urban spatial conditions that have a strong affinity for the abstract. The work that she has produced is peaceful, yet in parallel, most powerful. In essence, the drawings represent urban diagrams which are concepts in themselves. Thinking in pure terms which suspends themselves between the artistic and the architectural, the graphic results are poignant and meaningful. The urban spatial conditions from which the artworks are derived are indeed referenced from space located between the real and the abstract. Through interpretation, they approach the conceptual.

Collaborative artwork

It is my belief that the collaborative piece displayed in the window of the gallery for this exhibition is not only a work of fine art, and of architecture, but a piece which subtly suggests the beginnings of a new manifesto. The space implied by the absence of line is in dialogue with that implied by the absence of shape. This space might best be seen as neutral, pure and endless. It accommodates the opportunity for other new concepts to be sited. It is a new realm, a new leaf, and I am inspired ever more to draw.

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