Frozen in Death
A freeze, a standstill, a pause...
When something is moving it is alive. When it ceases to do so we look at the subject as if it is dead.
Society focuses on maintaining momentum as a way of avoiding the subject of death; whilst in painting it is the reverse. An image is like a tombstone: within its stillness it seeks to give external life and offers an insight into the past for the future.
There are many significant times in life where changes affecting subjects or historic events become overlooked or forgotten through our obsession with the development of the new. Changes in travel and migration have been two such areas. The Covid-19 pandemic was the first time the human world had come to a standstill. The engines of travel stopped moving in order to protect life.
Travel and migration became less necessary and one industry inevitably affected by the freeze in society was aviation. An emblem of this movement was the iconic 747. The plane took to the skies in 1969 and flew for its last time in 2020. This icon played a pivotal part in shaping Modernism and contributing largely to affordable long-distance flights to far away destinations. The aircraft embodies the relationship between architecture and technology. The architect Norman Foster drew parallels between the 747 and architecture in a documentary called Building Sights, 1991. Foster describes the tail of the 747 as “higher than a six-storey building”.
Its details, height, sweeping design lines of the wings and its ability to accommodate large numbers lead me to make a comparison with the architecture of Le Corbusier; specifically, Unité d’habitation. A symbol of the utopian ideals of architecture. His building details, like the utopian modular man embossed into surface of concrete formwork, are reminiscent of the mystical painted spiral symbols located on the jet engines of aircrafts. There is wide speculation to what the origins, meaning and function of the spirals could be. Many believe they signal to the people on the ground that the engines are moving or stationary, but their original purpose is unclear. When still, they appear to suggest movement and defy stillness. These opposing forces bring forward a sensation that recalls early Op art works with likes Bridget Riley’s ‘kiss’ 1961. Just like painting is a repository place over time. In turn, this requires the viewer to be still for it to be unpacked. In a sense, these contradictory symbols are partly unlocked but meanings are still yet to be uncovered.
The 747 contributed to a large part of the success story of the travel industry for just over 50 years. Which raises the question: was the plane deemed a success or was it always going to the graveyard? These planes were perhaps destined to become relics of an era.
A freeze, a standstill, a pause...
When something is moving it is alive. When it ceases to do so we look at the subject as if it is dead.
Society focuses on maintaining momentum as a way of avoiding the subject of death; whilst in painting it is the reverse. An image is like a tombstone: within its stillness it seeks to give external life and offers an insight into the past for the future.
There are many significant times in life where changes affecting subjects or historic events become overlooked or forgotten through our obsession with the development of the new. Changes in travel and migration have been two such areas. The Covid-19 pandemic was the first time the human world had come to a standstill. The engines of travel stopped moving in order to protect life.
Travel and migration became less necessary and one industry inevitably affected by the freeze in society was aviation. An emblem of this movement was the iconic 747. The plane took to the skies in 1969 and flew for its last time in 2020. This icon played a pivotal part in shaping Modernism and contributing largely to affordable long-distance flights to far away destinations. The aircraft embodies the relationship between architecture and technology. The architect Norman Foster drew parallels between the 747 and architecture in a documentary called Building Sights, 1991. Foster describes the tail of the 747 as “higher than a six-storey building”.
Its details, height, sweeping design lines of the wings and its ability to accommodate large numbers lead me to make a comparison with the architecture of Le Corbusier; specifically, Unité d’habitation. A symbol of the utopian ideals of architecture. His building details, like the utopian modular man embossed into surface of concrete formwork, are reminiscent of the mystical painted spiral symbols located on the jet engines of aircrafts. There is wide speculation to what the origins, meaning and function of the spirals could be. Many believe they signal to the people on the ground that the engines are moving or stationary, but their original purpose is unclear. When still, they appear to suggest movement and defy stillness. These opposing forces bring forward a sensation that recalls early Op art works with likes Bridget Riley’s ‘kiss’ 1961. Just like painting is a repository place over time. In turn, this requires the viewer to be still for it to be unpacked. In a sense, these contradictory symbols are partly unlocked but meanings are still yet to be uncovered.
The 747 contributed to a large part of the success story of the travel industry for just over 50 years. Which raises the question: was the plane deemed a success or was it always going to the graveyard? These planes were perhaps destined to become relics of an era.