Narrative form and the creation and subversion of architectural ornament.

North, Laurence ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6578-1771 (2018) Narrative form and the creation and subversion of architectural ornament. In: Decriminalising Ornament: The Pleasures of Pattern, 9th International Research Symposium, Nov 17-19, 2018, Anglia Ruskin, Cambridge. (Unpublished)

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Abstract / Summary

The interdisciplinary paper considers architecture as a book form where the structural tectonics co-operate with ornamental or embellished skin to create a unified visual syntax. Historic examples of the creation and subversion of visual ornament within architecture and its relationship to illustrated narratives is discussed. In particular the work at Padua and Assisi attributed to Giotto c1300 and Fra Pozzo's late 17th century Santa Ignacio, Rome. Both of these examples employ lavish embellishment that interacts with the architecture subverting the nature of the decorative and the ornamental, confusing the boundaries between fictive and actual space. Contemporary examples are also used to discuss the potential for illustrators to develop strategies for working with architecture. The Factory, Hong Kong, 2008 is a refurbished industrial building by Alberto Cipriani, which uses large scale wall paintings by the illustrator Mauro Marchesi in a decorative context. Marchesi’s paintings are derived from his graphic novels and appear throughout the building taking advantage of its structure and purpose to inform and enrich the fictional narrative. This previously unremarkable building becomes a landmark project where fact and fiction merge. TFL's 21st century Art on the Underground projects also improve and enrich a challenging architectural environment through decorative means. Art on the Underground projects by Mark Wallinger, Mitra Trabazian and Jacqueline Poncelet are considered.
Many of the works discussed operate within a sociopolitical context persuading or reflecting collective opinion while others work with more formal interests. In all cases the process of passing through or the sense of being within the architectural environment is conditioned by the creation or subversion of decorated, embellished and ornamental surface

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