Art 4 Photographs & Annotations

Art 4 Assessment Inspiration

Berlin

A small glimpse of graffiti: Art is only considered
so in a gallery. Here, it is viewed as vandalism.

I took the following pictures whilst on a college trip to Berlin, Germany. As a part of my Art 4 Final assignment I have decided to use these following photographs I took in Berlin as inspiration for my work. The majority of the buildings I encountered in Berlin were of a Bauhaus style of architecture that originated around the 1920's. This style is the foundation of my chosen assignment: 'Form Before Function?'. The original principal of the design philosophy is 'Form follows Function'. This would mean that the function of a building would be the main influence, or priority behind its design and then the form would be utilised to ensure that the desired function was met as best possible.
   Instead when the priority is based upon form, such as the case with the Holocaust Memorial seen bellow, the function and meaning behind a structure/design can be obscured and even lost altogether.

Reichstag building
This building was the house constructed for the Imperial Diet of the German Empire and opened in 1894 after a decade of construction, just fifty years later it was largely destroyed during World War II. The aesthetics of this building are in stark contrast to the new postmodernist parliamentary functional building Paul Löbe Building next door that can be seen bellow.

 The Paul Löbe Building
This postmodernist building was designed by German architect Stephan Braunfels. The Buildings geometry is striking upon first viewings and it maintains the simplicity of modernist architecture and combines it with the imaginative ornament forms of postmodernism to achieve something in which manages to be incredibly functional and also amazing to behold. This no compromise approach to design is more in line with Frank Lloyd Wright's style of architecture.


 The Embassy of the United States of America is situated in Pariser Platz 2, Berlin. The current site opened on July 4th 2008 after four years of construction. This site was previously situated in Pariser Platz and was known as the Blücher Palace. The Palace was however destroyed during the second World War and demolished in the years after.
  The new Chancery building was designed by Moore Ruble Yudell to reflect the Bauhaus style of modern architecture that it now surrounds.

As the slabs go off into the distance, a hill-like landscape is formed.

 The German Holocaust Memorial was inaugurated on May 10th 2005: sixty years after the end of World War II. Whilst visiting the memoral, I was initially struck by its abstrtact qualities. For example: its lack of figurative resemblance to significant Jewish associations such as the Star of David, as well as the concrete slabs resemblance to apparent resemblance to coffins and headstones.
   In contrast to its surroundings, this memorial is seemingly avoiding making any sort of bold statement about the severe injustice inflicted upon the Holocaust victims by the Germans under Nazi Regime.

The shadows of the concrete slabs cast onto one another to form a darkening, uneasy path way.
Despite a feeling a claustrophobia being set within the observer due to the vast heights of the slabs in the centre of the memorial, a way out can always be seen: a symbol of hope.

 



The entrance to the Bahnhof underground train station.



A low angle perspective of glass balcony's in the centre of Berlin.

The statue from a far under the shadows of a
functionalist-driven design structure.

The Statue of Giordano Bruno
This sculpture of famous Italian philosopher and mathematician Giordano Bruno by German artist Alexander Polzin is a dedication to the Dominican Monk that's situated in the Bahnhof Potsdamer Platz station entrance hall (shown above).
   According to the artist himself, the sculpture's physique was crafted to resemble that of the flames of a fire as Bruno was executed at the stake for his anti-societal views on the Universe and other areas of the sciences.
   I have decided to make this the basis of my final piece as I feel as the themes of prejudice and misunderstanding that Bruno endured, for example, are not only feelings that I resonate with personally, but that they also reflect the conflict between modern and traditional forms of art and architecture that I have experienced.






Up close low angle shot of the sculpture adds a sense of power to the object.

Head over Heels: The object is positioned upside-down to represent how revolutionary ideas can completely change society's view on life.

The entrance to the futuristic Sony Centre building complex situated in Potsdamer Platz, Berlin.

The complex at night under illumination.

On the left: a more modernist approach to design
On the right: a postmodern approach.