hughes meyer studio

Lessons from Piranesi I

2009, Diploma Unit 15, Architectural Association
Gergely Kovács

Kovács’ digital forensics into the construction of Piranesi’s famous fish-eye perspective of the Colosseum suggests that the artist notionally unrolled the structure into a linear element and then projected it back upon a curved picture plane. The line is thus found embedded in the circle. Here the process is extrapolated to its logical conclusion: as the Colosseum’s radius tightens, it is turned inside out. The result is a highly political inversion of an ancient engine of power.

Lessons from Piranesi I