Cityscapes
Sophie Hoyle

During sub30 residency at Proyecto Ace (2011), Sophie Hoyle undertook a site-specific research through a series of explorations around Buenos Aires photographing the built landscape. She was immediately drawn to the beton brut style architectural structures of the Biblioteca Nacional and Torre Dorrego (also known as the ‘death star’), with their shared characteristics of a raw concrete aesthetic and an imposing or foreboding atmosphere, with a near-dystopian or almost science-fiction quality.

Drawing from the original photographs, Sophie created new architectural structures though photomontage to produce images for photolithographic prints. By folding and cutting into the prints themselves, the architectural components were again re-arranged to form new structural compositions.

Through her installation in the gallery space, the images were re-spatialised, and reconfigured in relation to each other. Protruding from the surface of the wall, they gained a new objecthood and sculptural quality. The prints were left unframed and were integrated into the rest of the space. Printing on translucent paper allowed them to be placed on top of one another, creating multiple layers of imagery, building up further the sense of a dense cityscape. A selection of pieces was mounted on the window of the gallery space, superimposing architectural images on the landscape behind.

Through processes of fragmentation and abstraction from the original photographic image, particular aspects of the architecture were selected and emphasised, creating an atmosphere or overall ‘sense-of’ this style of architecture in the city.