CONTENT
Authors & Topics
Canna Shah
In episode #1 on
The importance of
integrating Art Sculptures within Architecture
It’s known to us that art and architecture blending together on an interdependent platform create mesmerizing and platonic structures. Art Sculptures act as a medium to narrate a story of history and culture, defining the place and people of region, further accentuating the architecture and aesthetics.
The importance of integrating Art Sculptures within Architecture
An article by Canna Shah, a student from 5th year B.arch
‘If one is talking about sculpture then scale and skin is everything.’
The lines between sculpture and architecture have always been blurred. The similarities shared by these two help in drawing a parallel, yet the differences question their significance. Architecture, like sculpture, is concerned with three-dimensional form. Sculpture has long been closely related to architecture through its role as architectural decoration and the level of design. Both have a critical responsibility to address the physical space and consider tenets of form, scale and material. And although the central problem in the design of buildings is the organization of space rather than mass, there are styles of architecture that are effective largely through the quality and organization of their solid forms, such as ancient styles of stone architecture, particularly Egyptian, Greek, and Mexican. These styles of stone architecture tend to treat their components in a sculptural manner. Moreover, most buildings viewed from the outside are compositions of masses. The symbolic relationship between sculpting and architecture makes it eminent that either form adds to the essence of the other, thus, complementing the experience and the overall connect of the place.
Certainly, by definition, architecture must also confront some utilitarian duties in addition to pure aesthetics. But new technologies and engineering have arguably freed the discipline from most of these conceptual limitations. The development of modern building technology also cause the growth of spatial sculpture. That many 20th-century sculptors can be said to have treated their work in an architectural manner. There is no doubt that architecture is an art. The question that remains unanswered is if the artistic ideas and influences exchanged between sculpture and architecture are a two-way street.
Investigating Architecture through Sculpture
[i]
Working with a more structural palette, literally “bending” the walled contours of the space allows for a play between a concept of a realistic norm and an actual idealism. Within his breadth of work Serra creates visually interesting and monolithic sculptures that bend both metal and mind. Serra’s view of space and the world can be inferred from his sculpture, manipulation of space and material create a surreal sensation and yet a concrete sensation of adherence to the earth. The sheer scale and size of his pieces both create their own space yet play off of the given space to create a harmony that resonates in both those versed in and new to art.
Anish Kapoor’s works can be described as monumental and minuscule, bold and restrained, shaped by and shaping space; it is his versatile nature that makes Anish Kapoor palatable to almost every taste. By using a space to literally and/or figuratively reflect back on itself Kapoor always has a sense of self, purpose and place. In contrast yet correlation to this physical reflectance of its surroundings Kapoor’s various reflective mirrored pieces use perspectives and views of a space that are existent in order to achieve a higher understanding and appreciation of the space.
[iii], [iv]
“Sky Mirror” installations do exactly that and when placed at angles, juxtaposing concave and convex, a normally enclosed and claustrophobic cityscape opens up and reveals new perspectives to passersby. A simple gesture with relatively simple materials becomes artwork simply by reflecting its habitat, just as “Svayambh” does at a much more visceral and tactile level. The “Marsyas” installation provides a very different yet arguably similar feeling. Its scale is a large factor in it being its own rooted and monumental space yet it still feels and acts as if it is a reflectant product of the space. This can be argued from several different viewpoints; its scale matches that of the space in which it lives, reflected a monolithic nature of the room and structure overall.
Symbiotic Relationship between Sculpture and Architecture: There exists a symbiotic relation between sculpture and architecture even if sometimes architecture and sculpture occupy the same spaces. They remain two totally different disciplines. On the other hand, there exists a constant movement between the two particularly when we consider the realm of monumental sculpture. Moreover, the architects were able to push the technical constraints which allowed them to release the forms, to be freer, and sometimes approach the steps of the sculptors.
Sculpture provides greater creative freedom; it is an experimentation ground. This freedom allows the appearance of new shapes and concepts that will eventually influence the architecture. If sculpture may impose its own limits, it remains nevertheless dependent on the constraints attached to the place it invests and the employed material, especially when the sculpture is implemented in the public domain.
[v], [vi]
Antoni Gaudi made the outside façades of the Sagrada Família appear like huge altarpieces, with a clearly catechistic and evangelizing purpose. In contrast, he wanted the inside to be a space of reflection and prayer, and this is why we find no large altarpieces but instead just a few sculptures with pronounced symbolic importance.
Conclusion: The integration of sculpture within architecture, or even vice-versa, adds an expression of the emotional, historical and/or social significance of it. In conclusion, one of these forms of art treats the other form as the medium or a language to express the connection and accentuate the experience of the space, if for sculpture in architecture, and convey the idea, if for architecture being integrated in sculpting.
References
[i] Sculpture formed by natural terrain
[ii]Modern and Contemporary Art Collection in Dallas
[iii]Marsyas, installation by Anish Kapoor at Tate Modern gallery in London
[iv] Sky Mirror, installation by Anish Kapoor at Wellington Circus, Nottingham
[v] Pablo Reinoso “Talking Bench”, installation in Tigre, Argentina
[vi] Sculptures at Sagrada Familia by Antoni Gaudi
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