Cities are often described as living organisms; viewed as subject rather than object. In this work I have engaged with the tradition of humanizing the city by deconstructing the clean, uncompromising aesthetic of the cartographic city plan and imbuing it with the unique history and culture of each place. Cities are depicted as active participants, affected by outside scorches and shaped by their internal structure. The city becomes a subject and entity in it’s own right.
In Central Park Manhattan, the city is viewed through the lens of the most iconic novels that reveal New York city as a distinct entity shaped by social, political, economic, historical and cultural factors. The thoughts, observations and insights of some eight writers reflect the history of New York city from the end of the 19th century to the end of the 20th century. The colored text that forms a pattern inside the city blocks is based upon the color scheme of Modrian’s famous painting from the 1940’s “Broadway Boogie-Woogie.
