Urbanscapes is a series of photographs of buildings from Los Angeles and Geneva, that the artist Mauren Brodbeck overpainted in full colors.
The idea is to photograph building as though they are people. That way, they become portraits of the cities where they are located. In this series, I am looking for subjects that have a real structural geometry. Buildings are a kind of mirror of society. I find the repetition and rhythm of architecture is associated with human rhythms such as habits and rituals. We are all really such creatures of habit.
The hue used comes from the location or the season : “I am inspired by the colors of the place and the seasonal colors which can really change the feel of the pictures. I start by using the color palette of the area or the persona. Then I create my own color palette based on the original color. That maintains the authenticity at the base of the work.”
This work recalls a little the Warp 10 Compilation albums’ design that the Designers Republic did in 2000 for the 10th years of the iconic electronic music label.
When we designed the identity for Warp, we chose a particular purple colour. For its tenth birthday we had the idea of turning the world Warp… we overpainted buildings and objects with slabs of Warp colour, it’s part of this ‘The World Of Warp’ thinking.
Also confront it with other in our “Architecture Erased” series of posts.
All images © Mauren Brodbeck
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