Stencils...Art or Graffiti?

Caen

Brussels "Space Invader"

Vienna - Beethoven's House

Paris

Paris

Paris

Marseille

Montpelier Tiling

Rabeux

 --

A filth has slowly covered the entity of architecture. It is a form of expression and rebellion. It is indeed relentless. But from the filth comes a bit of beauty and intrigue. Graffiti is a problem we shall face once day--to live with it or destroy it. Stencils on the other hand have caught my attention. They are rather crafting beauty than defiling a surface. Can it be called art?

--

New Price Tag

A fourty-five minute walk in twenty,

Up the steep hill to the castle in scaffolding

To see inside a monument

Which broke the Bavarian bank three times

But made King Ludwig II happy

With joys of Medieval Pleasures

And built his Castle upon a mountain

--

A Castle from the Middle ages built in the 18th Century houses a collection of over sized and fantasized prices. This is a castle of dreams. A castle that Disney took. A castle that should not exist but surely does. It is a gem among gems; aside from the scaffolding. It seems to be a season of repairs.

--This is Neu Schwanstein Schloss--

--

Catalonia Music House

Sun drips like water upon the crowd

For one so calmly stands so proud

Of the Catalonian house

For music lives within

And detail upon detail screams aloud

Filling each space like a cloud

Down to the size of a mouse

 For Gaudi is a Catalonian

The Music House of Catalonia crafted by Antoni Gaudi is sensational. It speaks volumes of skill in craft and design. The music runs through its veins. Within the audience, a sun made from glass drips. It brings light onto the stage and illuminates the music. To hear a performance was exasperating and ultimately lively. It is another work from a genius, but also illegal to photograph.

Egypt in Paris

Fortified and Still Alive

The placid soil of time,

Stand Still to allow quicksand to engulf horses,

and Castles alike.

For all who look into the souls of men,

are trapped by the Birds that fly above,

and lay waist the city before them.

To the last feather soaked in oil and pitch.

To the Last Feather Soaked in water and blood.

All stand firm and clasp their ground,

to hold the giant Sky from collapsing.

To the Mossy Stones unturned,

All is silent.

All is not lost.

--

Out from my medieval dreams comes a city so lovely it flattens my ever grasping hands. I stood before it in awe, bewilderment, confusion, astonishment, perturbation, admiration, astonishment, esteem and reverence. An obtuse monastery built upon an Island in Normandy. It is Mont St Michel. The tide which rides in for nine miles speedily delivers in nine minutes. Quicksand covers the area for any who try to enter. 

The city is a dream. It is from myth and legend. I could not believe I was at a place so congruent with my childhood desires. I was floating amid the clouds that surround the Island. The fog rolls from the shores and builds a blanket comforting the rocks beneath the castle walls.

The tower Abbey like a dagger in the sky pulls the spiraling road to its forefront. It clasps your breadth. It squeezes you empty. For it is minimal and calm like the monks within. The stone is harmonious with the movements of the people. All sit and wait for action to occur but nothing does. It is silent. The Mont is but a dream unable to be touched and moved by mere mortals.

--

Alter Pieces

Lille Reform Cathedral "Flowerabra"

Marseille Cathedral on the Hill "Boats"

Barcelona La Sagrada Familia "Parachute Cross"

Barcelona Gothic Cathedral "Geese"

Munich Asamkirche "Skeleton"

Munich Frauenkirche "Oil-less Lamps"

--

Some quaint and some obtuse  designs which flourish throughout the European cities. Once built to bring light to a society now tousled with over-lavished decoration. Iconography is a tool of architectural signage to the masses.

--

The Little Church Between

Squished

Glorified

Lavished

Lit

Iconified

Lingering

 

Gental

Curved

 --

Little Asamkirche Muenchen

A shoebox church exists in Munich wedged between two.
Hosting  colours of red and pink and a little bit of  blue.
With Curves and stone and fluffy stuff comes out the rococo,
to Dine on vintage materials and cast for a glamorous show


The Little church sits quietly, making a lot of sound,
and as you enter you take a whiff of the Gem you found.
For within the shoebox comes bright shining light
and pigments of golden crowned,
that rise above the ceiling to the heavens abound.


This Little kirche strives to tell a story to the few,
and kiss the details that deliver the happy building askew.
Leaving it behind an arch and a little wall,
the little Church is alive standing just a few feet tall.

--

Dacau

"Work will make you free"

50,000 prisoner ground

Statue for the Dead

The Special Prisoner jail

8 Months of Complete Darkness

Room 16

Room 24

Room 27

Fingernail Marks

Leading on

Prisoner House

Toilet

Beds

Doorway

Body Furnace

"Shower room" [Gas Chamber Never used here]

Doors to Experimentation and Furnace Room

Doors to the Gas Chamber

--

The concentration camps during World War Two were conceived by a maniac destined to change humanity and architecture forever. Looking closely at a diminutive process of Roman Classical design strikes fear into the hearts of the weak. But lowering the standards tenfold sets the stage to a death camp. The prisoners born, built, lived and died in these huts.

Designed for 52 persons, 400 were gently crammed into the space. Overloaded and under-heated the prisoners froze to death. Diseases, bugs and lack of showers allowed for more to perish horrifically. Forced to build these buildings they worked to death. Little place for food storage and cooking spaces allowed the prisoners to die of starvation.

For architecture can cause anger and spite just as humans do. They took advantage of a beautiful art-form to push humanity to it's lowest. An age of shame and misery should never be forgotten, ignored or doubted. It is a troubling existence to be born with this history so clear.

A humbleness never found and shan't never be forgotten.

--