seized abstractions [2007]

Conceived as postcards while traveling, this series provided me with a way to work with architectural abstraction in a foreign location. The seemingly formal exercise carried an intentional misuse of those signs marking the specificity of a place. Decontextualized structural elements such as a generic fence or an Ionic column are captured as visual synecdoche. As a group, "Seized Abstractions" unsettles hierarchies embedded in tourist-guide sights of a city. Thus the cerulean sky through the Parthenon's flattened scaffolding is on equal footing with the Parthenon itself, and the blurred sign for Russell Square station on a red colorfield becomes a stand in for London's urban pace. [For Alan and Cynthia ]