An eight by twelve-foot wall drawing shows the Art in General Project Space in axonometric form—a scale rendering, like a floor-plan, that also shows the space’s volume in three-dimensions. This axonometric drawing with solid color planes evokes the drawings of modern artists and designers like Laszlo Moholy-Nagy and Le Corbusier.

The axonometric drawing of Axonometric Study shows a pristine version of Art in General’s Project Space, stripped of all its architectural details (door, column, paneling) and divided into three distinct planes: red, gray, and a photographic image. If one were able to enter the space shown in the drawing, the visual intensity of the solid red wall would affect one’s perception of the space. This is what Moholy-Nagy referred to as color’s potential for “space articulation.”

In his interiors, Le Corbusier also used the effect of light and color to emphasize spatial, architectural qualities. He often painted planes in solid colors in order to either highlight or alter the spatial characteristics of a room. He used assertive tones, like red, to “hold the wall,” and other colors, like blue, to make a wall recede. In this way, Le Corbusier claimed to use color to “create space.”

In Axonometric Study, I have covered one of the walls with a photographic mural. The floor-to-ceiling photo mural, especially with depictions of architecture, was a device frequently employed by Le Corbusier and Moholy-Nagy in their exhibition designs. The architectural space displayed in the photographs gave the illusion of extending the exhibition space. The photographic mural in Axonometric Study depicts the architectural complex of the Mexico City Polytechnic Institute. Designed by Reynaldo Perez Rayon and completed in 1963, the Polytechnic Institute is a rare example of functionalist architecture on such a large scale. Installed in the hypothetical Project Space of the drawing, this photomural has the effect of extending the exhibition space.

Terence Gower