Ecstatic Environments
The feelings certain environments invoke in us that transcend our ability to adequately express them in words, often as we experience them, is the premise of Ecstatic Environments, my illustration thesis in college. This was in 2018/19. You can say everything started from here.
A crucial piece of research during this process is architectural historian Charles Jenck’s book Ecstatic Architecture, a collection of extended essays arguing the existence of such a trend, which is that of “structures partly motivated by pure architectural ideas pushed to their limits and a shift from functional concerns to sensual ones.” Ecstatic Environments take this to another level in an exploration of how our surroundings can inspire powerful emotions, give epic and transcendental experiences, and even change how we see the world.
Space Dome
Throughout human history, architecture strove to impress, intimidate and transcend our mundane everyday reality. A classic architectural technique to this end is the manipulation of one’s sense of space and gravity (often in relation to each other), seen in the prevalent use of domes and vaulted ceilings in buildings and monuments meant to inspire feelings of awe and grandeur. These timeless forms were created to amplify the impressiveness of an interior space and they continue to flourish to this day.
To create the microuniverse of Space Dome, I combined the interior of the Süleymaniye mosque in Turkey, built in the 14th century, and the underside of the ArtScience Museum in Singapore, built in 2011 - with alterations to both, obviously - as a tribute to domes and how they arrest our attention across time. Playing with perspective in the gravity-free Outer Space, the structure in Space Dome sets the stage for a wild and ecstatic scene and demonstrates how design always strives towards the future, even as it borrows from the past.
Cave Dome
The more we progress, the more we disconnect from nature. To compensate, we begin incorporating organic forms and sustainable materials in modern design, including our buildings. This environment is inspired by the Richard Gilder Centre at the American Natural History Museum in New York, home to new research facilities, exhibits, an insectarium and butterfly vivarium - a delightful, cavernous space with sloping curves and enticing orifices (I’m aware how this sounds. No jokes, please). There is an element mystery and anticipation when exploring the place’s numerous passageways and entryways, a feeling that you don’t really know where you will end up when you turn this corner or go down those stairs.
Learning about the life cycle of bugs and insects along the way led to the inevitable thought of the pains of metamorphosis, becoming the central theme of this work and adding to the disorientation and disillusionment of the relentlessly confusing and at times perilous Cave Dome. In the endless quest to reach our goal or destination, passages that promise progress or escape become pitfalls, dead ends or wormholes to false realities, and the signs with which we make sense of our surroundings can no longer be relied on.
Related Works
Shaking the Heavens
This structure is inspired by my readings of the human figure in architecture and Wat Arun, or the Temple of Dawn in Bangkok, Thailand. The architecture of Wat Arun consists of angular tiers stacked upon each other, with the sections supported by rows of carved warrior-like deities holding up this sacred monument. This illustration fixates on the idea of elevation in the literal and metaphorical sense. The figures coming to life and waging a fearsome war with each other adds a narrative twist to the scene.
Mouth of Hell
You can’t have heaven without hell. The monstrous structure in this drawing is the combination of two church interiors and a nod to the legend of Orcus, a punishing god of the underworld in Etruscan and Roman mythology. Orcus was part of the inspiration for the antagonistic orc race in JRR Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings universe. My demons are grotesque and ogre-like in appearances too, but this particular hellscape is a matriarchal society where only the female demons have the ability to fly. Therefore they are the ones to deposit corrupt souls into hell’s hungry belly, where the men wait with pitchforks to mete out torture and sometimes feed the little demon orc babies they care for the few raw lumps of flesh from their victims that they can spare.