ABSTRACT
There are various denitions of the term ‘gothic’,1 from the medieval Gothic style of architecture to the Teutonic Gothic tribe. In this chapter, I intend to use the adjective ‘gothic’, pertaining to a ‘style of ction characterized by the use of desolate or remote settings and macabre, mysterious, or violent incidents’.2 This genre was developed throughout the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, and it persists today in lm and literature, evidenced through the plethora of horror and science-ction dramas set in a dystopian, post-apocalyptic society, whose backdrop nds its equivalent to those detailed above in the post-industrial ruins of the modern cityscape. It is this milieu that pervades my own work, carrying with it the associations of the gothic landscapes generated in the ction and art of the past. By referencing these, I intend to illustrate the sense of ‘wonder’ – in terms of mystery, bewilderment and threat – which I seek to evoke in my drawings and installations, and how this relates to previous incarnations of the gothic genre.
