Set In Stone

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Five artists' architectural interpretations at Pitzhanger Manor

A NEW EXHIBITION OF WORK BY EMILY ALLCHURCH, STEPHEN CARTER, MICHAEL DURNING, STEFAN HOENERLOH & BEN JOHNSON

Five artists present their own interpretations of architecture in a new exhibition at PM Gallery, the extension to architect Sir John Soane’s home, Pitzhanger Manor in Ealing, west London. Each artist takes their inspiration from  a variety of buildings to create paintings and photography of, variously, London’s Westway, Scottish monuments, longstanding, ghostly, city buildings and imaginary Roman prisons.

Set in Stone runs from 28 March-26 April 2008.

Emily Allchurch

British artist Emily Allchurch presents a series of meticulously researched and constructed lightbox images of imaginary prison buildings, pieced together from many pictures of real buildings from across Europe. The series is inspired by Giovanni Battista Piranesi’s ‘Carceri d’Invenzione’ (Imaginary Prisons) c.1745-1761. Emily Allchurch creates each large backlit transparency by making a selection from hundreds of her own photographs and digitally splicing together the selected pictures to make a seamless construction of Piranesi’s original work. Each resulting building is a mass of architectural styles, with warning signs, CCTV cameras, razor wire and security mirrors among the many 21st-century features giving a sense of foreboding and claustrophobia. Stephen Carter

Stephen Carter has examined the detail of London’s Westway (already immortalised by The Clash), with a series of photographs taken from beneath the huge concrete flyover, which carries traffic from London and out to the M4 to Wales. Stephen Carter considers his work to be optimistic, as the Westway represents both an escape for city dwellers to the beauty of the countryside and for country dwellers to get to the exciting heart of the city. But the optimistic view is tempered by the fact that the photographer is stuck below the Westway in a forgotten, uncelebrated, not to mention dirty and smelly, part of the city.

Michael Durning

Michael Durning’s beautiful paintings of neglected and broken monuments and buildings question attitudes to Scottish heritage and culture. Often buildings are shown in relation to Scotland’s grand landscapes and unforgiving weather, reducing their prowess in the face of the natural environment.

Stefan Hoenerloh

Stefan Hoenerloh is a modern German painter who creates monumental buildings with accurate, detailed architectural features. The buildings appear to be photographic, or painted from photographs, but are all invented by Hoenerloh using oil and acrylic. Stefan Hoenerloh paints looming buildings, often so large that the viewer is only able to see part of them within the frame of the picture. There appears to be no sign of life in any of the buildings, which seem to be old and weather-beaten, but strong in the face of everything they have withstood over the years since they were built.

Ben Johnson

Internationally renowned artist Ben Johnson creates large city panoramas. His most recent and most complex painting, the Liverpool Cityscape, follows previous works on Hong Kong, Jerusalem and Zurich and was commissioned by the National Museums of Liverpool for this year’s European Capital of Culture celebrations. The production of each cityscape involves a lengthy process of photography throughout each city and many detailed drawings. The final work is created in a Renaissance-like studio using highly specialised assistants.In 1990, Ben Johnson was made an honorary Fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architects for his contribution to the public understanding of contemporary architecture, the only contemporary painter to be so honoured.

 

Set in Stone Exhibition Dates: 28 March-26 April 2008

Admission is free to all visitors

Opening Times: Tuesday-Friday 1-5pm; Saturday 11am-5pm

 

March 7, 2008