In a May 2023 Lenscratch Magazine article, Daniel George interviews Barbara Strigel about her series If We Were To Talk About Architecture. Read the full article here.
Excerpt
In the shape of the city there are instances when architecture becomes an entry point. The shadow of leaves on a blue wall becomes a recollection of summer, telephone wires sing jazz and a repetition of square windows evoke a meditation. These fragmentary moments are resonant, sensory perceptions that invite connection to space.
I have been working with my street photographs to construct arrangements of architectural space. l digitally layer drawings and torn paper collage over fragments of the photographs, excavating and positioning to unify them into a state of visual grace. In the same way that an architect draws upon personal experiences and associations to design a building, I take a wall in Kanazawa, my memory of a watercolor by Paul Klee and a balcony where I once sat looking over the Ionian Sea and try to pull out some approximation of the resonance that prompted me to take a photograph.
Throughout this project, I have been inspired by the sketchbooks and diaries of the visionary Italian architect Aldo Rossi, who believed that architecture could express intangible longings and that it was fundamentally a search for meaning. I use photography and collage with a similar intention, to give form to the idea of resonant space.
