Urban Schema:
Light boxes by Michael Bednar
First Reception: September 26 2011
October 7th- November 3rd
Opening Reception: October 7th 6-8pm
Urban Schema is an investigation of metropolitan environments. These places have been constructed to bring community closer, but their direction has become skewed. The lines between an organic and industrial landscape have been disrupted resulting in an environment that desires a return to an earlier time. This exploration takes the core elements of a city and uses examination in a way that is sometimes overlooked. These are an allusion to the ability of man to develop his own world.
This is what the artist has done, designing his ideal city; with schools, housing, forms of government, etc. Each light-box is a schematic to be interpreted as one city block. The construction of these “schematics” relies heavily on geometry and mathematics, which is revisited in the box construction. Every element of the artwork has been predetermined and controlled except for the drawing itself. The methodical approach is integrated in the aesthetic, but only enough to leave a sense of human contact.
In the end these works are what Society desires today. The ability to create a controlled, almost sterile environment labeled as being “green” or Earth-friendly. The human idea of Nature is the antithesis of actual Nature.
