If We Were to Talk about Architecture

If We Were to Talk about Architecture Project statement: Barbara Strigel In the shape of the city there are instances when architecture becomes an entry point. The shadow of leaves on a blue wall becomes a recollection of summer, telephone wires sing jazz and a repetition of square windows evoke a meditation. These fragmentary moments are resonant, sensory perceptions that invite connection to space. I have been working my street photographs to construct arrangements of architectural space. l digitally layer drawings and torn paper collage over fragments of my photographs, excavating and positioning to unify them into a state of visual grace. In the same way that an architect draws upon personal experiences and associations to design a building, I take a wall in Kanazawa, my memory of a watercolor by Paul Klee and a balcony where I once sat looking over the Ionian Sea and try to pull out some approximation of the resonance that prompted me to take a photograph. Throughout this project, I have been inspired by the sketchbooks and diaries of the visionary Italian architect Aldo Rossi, who believed that architecture could express intangible longings and that it was fundamentally a search for meaning. I use photography and collage with a similar intention, to give form to the idea of resonant space.