Artist's Statement

It can be argued that the greatest examples of any culture’s architecture reflect its ideologies and values. Whether Roman, Renaissance, Modernist, Soviet, or Fascist, the architecture is a form of propaganda, a pseudo-utopia, idealized, and often highly seductive.

The architectural scenarios I have created may at first be interpreted as symbols of success; on the surface, we see an appealing, perfected, modernist world. But as one contemplates the ideal further, we become aware that something isn’t quite right; we experience a mix of futuristic dread and excitement where dystopia and utopia converge. Is this an abandoned world? And why? I want the viewer to experience a shift from utopian to dystopian in a similar way to how one realizes a dream has just started to become troubling while still aware that the reasons for the change are yet to be revealed.

I have been inspired by visits to Oscar Niemeyer’s buildings in Brazil, my ongoing obsession with Le Corbusier’s Unité d'habitation buildings, and the futuristic dystopian scenarios within the fiction of J.G. Ballard. I focus on the modernistic richness of the architectural elements (unattainable for most) while evoking the implication of a dystopian narrative that could be the result of climate change or political upheaval.

Ultimately, I use architecture as a prism to examine symbols of power.