{"id":291,"date":"2023-01-17T12:15:43","date_gmt":"2023-01-17T13:15:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/chosenviber.net\/?p=291"},"modified":"2023-08-07T23:29:09","modified_gmt":"2023-08-07T23:29:09","slug":"one-drawing-challenge-winner-explores-enduring-truths-at-the-heart-of-a-classic-book-beloved-by-architects-worldwide","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/chosenviber.net\/index.php\/2023\/01\/17\/one-drawing-challenge-winner-explores-enduring-truths-at-the-heart-of-a-classic-book-beloved-by-architects-worldwide\/","title":{"rendered":"One Drawing Challenge Winner Explores Enduring Truths at the Heart of a Classic Book Beloved by Architects Worldwide"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Judging is now underway for<\/i>\u00a0the <\/em>Architizer Vision Awards<\/a>. <\/i><\/b>Do you want<\/i> first access to the Winner’s Announcement, information about our Architecture Film Fest, special print publication and more? Sign up to receive key program updates ><\/a> \u00a0<\/i><\/p>\n Italo Calvino’s\u00a0Invisible Cities <\/em>is officially more than 50 years old; yet, its enduring appeal is attested to by the special place reserved on most architect’s bookshelves for the Italian fables. For young architecture students and experienced practitioners alike, the book remains a source of inspiration and a constant reminder of the infinite possible experiences inherent to any place. This year’s One Drawing Challenge<\/a> Non-Student Winner, Thomas Schaller<\/strong><\/a>, is one of those architects.<\/p>\n While at first glance, the city in his painting appears to be reflecting on a body of water, longer gazing reveals that the buildings grow both up and down. As the fine artist explains, “This drawing tells the story of Octavia, a city suspended above the Earth by a spider\u2019s web of cables and wires. Interpretations are limitless, but in my interpretation, the inhabitants of Octavia depict the central truth about humanity \u2013 connections are profound \u2013 but tenuous, just as is our grasp on life itself.” The razor’s edge distinction between precarity and strength is at the core of the urban experience.<\/p>\n Expertly oscillating between the precision of fine lines, seen in details like the bridge and cables, and the more atmospheric and reflective qualities of diffused pigments, the image is mind-bending: not only in terms of subject matter but also in terms of technique. Schaller’s use of his medium, therefore, amplifies the thematic subject matter at the heart of the image.<\/p>\n To learn more about his conceptual and creative processes, Architizer’s Architecture Editor, Hannah Feniak, was delighted to chat with Thomas, who delved into topics such as the relationship between architecture and fine art, and the inspiration for his winning entry. Keep scrolling to see process sketches by the award-winning architectural artist!<\/p>\n Hannah Feniak: Congratulations on your success with the One Drawing Challenge! What sparked your interest in entering the competition, and what does this accolade mean to you?<\/strong><\/p>\n Thomas Schaller:<\/strong> First, I want to say a very big \u201cThank You\u201d to everyone at Architizer who designed and hosted this competition and exhibition. It is a great honor for me to even be included. I appreciate all your hard work. And I am in awe of the incredible work entered. Congratulations to all.<\/p>\n From the time I could see, drawing has been fundamental to who I am. As a child, I drew to try to make sense of the worlds I saw both around me and within my imagination. To this day, I am never without a sketchbook and a pocket full of sketch pencils in order to keep a kind of \u201cvisual diary\u201d of the ideas in my head as well as to record my impressions of the world we all inhabit. And so, I am thrilled that this competition even exists.<\/p>\n It is my belief that drawing is the most effective and direct connection between the visual image and the human need to record, express, and create. While I rely on traditional pencil and paper, I have no opposition whatsoever to any means, method, or technological tool anyone uses to draw. But for the human mind to open the windows upon the landscapes of perception, creativity, and imagination, drawing is the most effective, enjoyable and expressive way to do so.<\/p>\n HF: What were the primary challenges of conceiving your work, from forming the idea to the creation process?<\/strong><\/p>\n TS:<\/strong> Like many, I worship the iconic work, Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino. It was written in the early 1970s but its themes of exploration, the clash of the real and the imagined, the built and the unbuilt, the plausible and the impossible, dreams, memories and the human condition are simply timeless. The book\u2019s protagonist \u2014 an adventurous interpretation of Marco Polo \u2014 travels a dreamscape of a world visiting cities built of memory and dreams and offers endless insights into the nature of cities and the very fabric of human life here on Earth.<\/p>\n One of the cities visited is Octavia, described in the book as suspended high above the Earth between two rocky mountain peaks by a tenuous spider\u2019s web of cables and wires. Countless metaphors and analogies can be drawn. One of course is the dependence of any city on a healthy infrastructure of roads, bridges and lines of communication, etc. But another more broad theme is the \u201cinfrastructure\u201d of humanity itself. Our very real need to congregate, to form groups for safety, sanity and survival was, for me, the takeaway and the theme of my drawing.<\/p>\n Especially after coming through two years of pandemic, the themes of human interaction and the need for interconnectivity were at the forefront of my mind as I designed this work. We can take our society\u2019s survival for granted, but if we fail to care for and nurture one another, as well as the very planet upon which all societies depend, we can learn just how frail and fragile our infrastructure may truly be.<\/p>\n