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My Exploration of a Space

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As I walk up the few steps to the entrance I feel the enormity of the building surround me, the arch that centres the building creates a pathway, not like any entrance but a seamless structure, no edges or corners to signify a beginning or end, an inside or outside. They become one with each other. A seductive curve showing of its impressiveness, its intricate mouldings that without warning become engulfed in my vision. They are stone, but I see their softness, the leaves delicately threading their way around the arch in-between the solid curves that are surrounding. Not falling under the pressure of the structure that seems to be weighing upon it. But instead they are weightlessly weaving between. Almost effortlessly taking their place within it and making it whole. The archway takes a hold of me and I let it, and I continue to enter through into the space.

 

unlike the solitary entrance that on its own seems so strong but goes by unnoticed, it not being a place to stop but more a transition between the exterior and interior, most will pass it by. I now find myself surround by a prism of archways, crossing over me creating a complex pattern of forms, But as i enter every curve and arch seems to follow me. The ceiling and floor intertwined by the continuous line, circling around through the pillars and into the tiled floor, my mind spirals out of control, a whirling sensation fills my body as I let it trace and fill my surrounding’s.

I feel tiny like an ant but at the same time giant.

I feel myself instantly tracing the ceiling, it seems endless nothing to contain it as it rumbles on down the length of the hall way, it almost pulsates and moves above me. But I feel its constraints, its webbed in repetitiveness its movements without the edges and corners to hold it back, but it has its own prison of structures that hold it into place. It seems necessary as without these structural curves there would be no ceiling at all.

A mixture of order and chaos combined in a web beauty.

After a minute or two of being pulled in two directions being engulfed by the ceilings waves but also being taken and pulled in an ordered manner, I finally settle. The waves wash away and the pull subsides and only a gentle tug remains keeping me engaged but not demanding my attention. I feel a freedom to follow my own path of exploration.

I find I only now have noticed the colours of the ceiling above. A deep sunken green that falls deeply into the above abyss. Is it sucking me up? or am I falling into it? I don’t know.

But as I feel this overpowering sensation of greenness it then becomes overcome and almost forgotten as the contrasting yellow that surrounds it makes it float away from view almost seeming forgotten and unimportant too far away to even contemplate. The overpowering fear of falling is now a distant thought and the yellow that has enfolded before me, has wrapped me up and comforted me like a baby resting on its mothers’ chest. I instinctively want to take a deep breath in and experience that feeling of closeness. But this also quickly dissolves away as the yellow that at first, I found a comfort has quickly changed. A red intricate line traces the edges of the yellow I almost feel interrupted and taken aback by the difference in tempo. The red thin line scales the edges, it’s the least amount of colour but it fills the most space. The pushing and pulling of the green and yellow become united the red becomes a stich that sews the two together. I find myself now following the red in a playful way as it weaves in and out of the surrounding structures I feel more relaxed and connected to the space as a whole.

 

I continue on as I am confronted with a staircase, another space of transition, but one that feels separated from the spaces around, no curves or arches to guide me through, but solid straight lines that seem so certain and definite in the path that they will take me on. stone vertical slabs ascend but they are grounded by their own heaviness marking their way and keeping me on track. Their structural importance seems to weigh them down even more, as they rely on the below and above to keep them in their place and its function takes over immediately as you begin to ascend. This leads my eye to the stretch above, the lightness contrasting with the dull heaviness of the steps below. Still the sensation of straightness pulls its way up but in a vertical motion, as the light floods through overlapping my body. I’m jolted by the sharp contrast between the two sensations. The delicate fragility of the glass, against the harshness of the stone, the crushing against the uplifting.

 

I almost instinctively find myself drawn not to one of the large rooms that confront me, but another place of transition where I almost always find myself more connected too.

These in-between spaces that do not quite occupy anything, most are functional, but usually unnoticed or passed by, some are even cornered off unaccessable to the viewer, these are the spaces that I find myself intrigued by and drawn too. I find myself wanting to explore, trespass into the unknown and uninhibited. 

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