copenhagen III

The area between the airport and the city centre, although only 20 minutes by metro was, on my last trip in 2001, an unknown part of town however, had I thought to venture there I would have found little more than vacant plots and building site, now however the area has been dedicated to the provision of space, space for the people, space for the sky, and space for the buildings, it is the buildings that are spectacle being in themselves massive sculptures that sit quietly in their own space.

Space is so important to the visual, when arranging ornaments or hanging an exhibition each object has its own space, above, beside, below and infront, each space is specified by the very power of the object, of course, where hanging an exhibition to its fullest impact it is only they with an intimate knowledge of each piece of work that can assess its rightful place for maximum impact; this has been achieved most beautifully in 'downtown Orestad (there is a line through the O like the phonetic number zero).

The entire area was designed by a team of architects, each employing their own vision though working closely with others in the team to create an area of sculptured buildings that, in relation to the sky can seem quite small though perfectly formed and in balance both with the backdrop of blue, or grey! sky and its neighbouring building, close up however people are absolutely dominated by the buildings unique feeling of hugeness!

I have not met with this before, arriving from a small town surrounded and dominated by hills and small grey buildings this space was all the more apparent, in most cities around the world I have found, the contemporary squeezed in and around older and more ancient buildings with only the slightest concern to the aesthetics of relationships, in many cases entire areas have been demolished to construct a new business park though on this occasion the space has usually been maximised for profit squeezing the highest number of buildings into the smallest amount of space leaving the occupant workers and residents little more than a shadowed life with only the tiniest glimpse of sky, quite stifling in my opinion, in Orestad this could not be further from this claustrophobic existance in itself quite depressing even.

My first large piece from my Copenhagen influence has to represent this and, for the first time in a while and far from frustratingly, came to me at 4 am in sufficient magnitude to waken me and prompt the unrolling of canvas and the printing out of images, even this Blog was completed at 0448, it is quite exhilerating to have this energy of work again while being absent since my return in my ponderances.