Debbie Ayles - Structures Revealed

About

Many buildings have architectural elements including bricks, windows, doors, chimneys, guttering and timber framing, but these features often fade into the background or become part of an overall sense of experience of a ‘building’.

Debbie Ayles examines buildings in a way that re-defines their structural integrity and uses the defining edges of the details around the object to uncover patterns that would not normally be noticed or seen, or if they are, would usually become homogenised and combined in our minds in a way that tends to fade them out.

Through flattening and combining the lines of positive space, negative space, details and reflections, she is able to create a complex geometry that becomes a puzzle when she introduces a palette of soft tones and colours to highlight the relationships between the various elements. Abstract forms are sometimes introduced too, to create an additional aspect

When a building is cloaked in a skeletal scaffolding structure, the spaces between this structure and the formal building behind become complex and engaging, and this is an additional element that Debbie employs to develop her structures; using a structure (scaffolding) that is used to make a structure (a building) and combining the two to build a new structure (within her paintings) develops into a fascinating game that plays back and forth.