ABSTRACT
The images presented to me were photographs, ostensibly so at least, for
they were veiled behind a protective sheet of translucent paper that rendered
them feint and misty, making it diffi cult to discern anything but distant and
undemarcated landscapes, expansive and harsh to the horizon. Intrigue was
added in that they were proffered under the rubric of ‘architecture’, seemingly
doubly displaced in this context. In lifting the protective cellulose sheet the
images were revealed ‘naked’, but they in no way resolved themselves. Photo-
graphs they certainly were, predominantly landscapes, sometimes structures,
and with buildings, or fragments of buildings, included within their frame
(sometimes spilling out of it). But such fragments, despite their elegant and
beguiling composition, slyly subverted their own status, revealing themselves
as ‘impossible’ combinations, contradictory scales and styles juxtaposed in
anomalous landscapes. Such undecidability of classifi cation compelled further
scrutiny, which in turn led to further subversion of the scene presented, such
that one experienced a curious and vertiginous feeling of unease which con-
tradicted the aesthetic poise and calm of the imagery.