Leon Chew
Saturday, 31 December 2011
Work from “Architecture was always defined in relation to it’s nature. Either nature is a model for architecture or it’s opposite. Whether considered different or similar, the assumption that they are two distinct entities is questionable, however. First, because the terms ‘architecture’ and ‘nature’ are intellectual constructs through which we comprehend and create our world. Second, because very little nature is only natural. It is increasingly modified by military, governmental and corporate intervention. As nature and architecture blur, terms particular to one are found in the other. Traditionally, the sublime is evoked by a desolate and expansive landscape exposed to the drama of natural forces. The pleasure of the sublime is first threatening then reassuring once comprehension increases and fear diminishes. For the last two hundred years, the city has personified a terrifying and thrilling presence engendered by a rampant industrialized economy veering close to catastrophe. In photographs of Chicago, Las Vegas, Montreal and Tokyo, Leon Chew depicts this urban sublime. He photographs valleys, flatlands, crags and cliffs. But unlike the surrealists, who conceived the city as petrified nature to experience it anew without preconceptions and history, Chew depicts the city as urban and natural.” – Prof Jonathan Hill