Stories in Light and Line

About

By contrasting the work of celebrated contemporary artists and some of the world's most recognised architectural illustrators ‘Stories in Light and Line' reveals the diverse ways of narrating and exploring the compelling stories behind architecture. The best architectural illustration goes beyond its face value, for it also tells a story - a visual narrative that employs the fundamental elements of light and line to create a subconscious emotive response in the viewer. Keith Hornblower's commanding watercolor paintings are known for using tone to create depth and drama that has a uniquely absorbing effect. A rare use of forced three point perspective in Hornblower's dynamic portrayal of the Sagrada Fam࠭lia gives the impression of standing below this imposing yet beautiful structure. Whilst Nigel Gilbert's evocative paintings prioritize light over the architectural elements of the work but in doing so, allows us, the viewer, to contemplate this intriguing combination in a moment of tranquility. One of our guest artists, Sachiyo Nishimura, approaches the role of architectural illustration in an alternative way. Working as a conceptual artist, Nishimura has focused her career on reconstructing and augmenting infrastructure central to contemporary cities. Working in the same vein as architectural illustrators, she uses the urban landscape as the structure to her image, focusing on the lines that create the forms around us. In contrast however to the exacting representations of any illustrator, Nishimura complicates the once familiar line to render it abstract. Through distortions in perspective, multiplications and scaling, the lines within her work take us through a narrative that lead us from the recognizable, through the unknown and back to the everyday. The exhibition highlights an appreciation of the diverse techniques that the SAI, as a society, upholds, whilst recognising the wider relevance and influence of contemporary artwork rooted in architectural storytelling. The