400 WORDS Escher

Escher was the sparking influence for this unit. I initially looked at his work for the surreal architecture, feeling that it was akin to my ideas about fantasy architecture and also I really enjoy the way his pieces play with the viewers perception. I found the technical, mathematical representation of architecture very satisfying to look at and also how the element of the almost playful was introduced with the impossibility of the layouts.

This is something I am very keen on replicating; not so much the playfulness, but the personality, despite the technical, repetitive way I draw. I hope to do this with my blocks, which in themselves are very simple, repetitive and geometric. What I can add to these blocks though, is entirely up to me, so they are a very good base to work on in this respect.

Whilst I was initially interested in his work with buildings and impossible architecture, this quickly grew into the possibility of using tessellations within my work. Escher created huge murals of evolving, flowing images (Metamorphosis II- 1939-1940, above), which involve both archiecture and tessellations. These elements physically blend into each other, which got me to thinking how I could blend them in my own way, but also by 'free association', which I hadn't previously considered before reading Micky Piller's thoughts (The Amazing World of M.C. Escher). The entire metamorphosis is a tessellation (a term which is not as strict as it sounds). Perhaps photography is a good way to plan this, yet it links back to this idea of adding my style to the blocks, which could simple be achieved by etching on to either a few or all of them.


Escher first looked at tessellations when attedning the School of Architecture and Decorative Arts in Haarlem, where these technical skills were a major focus. His father, having worked in Japan, and the objects he acquired during this time would also have influenced his work in this area, according to Micky Piller. So even though my main influence from Escher was not his work on impossible architecture, his work with tessellations still comes back round to it. What looking at Escher really did for me was help me to see all the woven links between archhitecture and art, helping me bridge a few of the gaps I was worried about, initially, in my practice.