Concrete Jungle cliche.. again..

In a special featured exhibit at the Art Institute called Hyperlinks: Architecture and Design, Matali Crasset’s concept art Spring City in Mexico depicts a highway bursting with large mosaic, collage, like tree trunks. Suggesting the overly used cliché concept of a “concrete jungle”, this image is jarring to look at from any angel and for any duration. Its feels as if Crasset was pulling inspiration from Rem Koolhaas who is famous for his concept art Delirious New York  which depicts the surrealistic appearance of New York’s prominent buildings as human figures. Unlike Koolhaas, Crasset is unable to convey a similar message about architecture and organic concepts visually in as an effective of a way. Praised for its “aesthetic rhetoric” and its exploration with the connection between architecture, nature, and technology, this image is simply lacking all together. The technology is not apparent at all, and the architecture is suggested by highways, which is no means represent architecture kindly. The composition of the vertical trunks verses the horizontal highways create an unwanted effect of confusion, causing the audience to be unsure of where exactly to look. If the image had been more similar to Koolhaus, the audience would be able to identify where the artist intended us to look and why. In this image however, it would have been much more effective if there were less tree trunks and instead of a highway, they were juxtaposed with something else vertical, such as buildings or telephone poles. Either one would give the concept of architecture or technology much more effectively than a highway. The entire collection of Crasset’s concept art appear to be all the same, conveying all of the same wrong messages. One of the main objectives of this collection and exhibit it is to carve out new avenues for experimentation that help shape an insightful solution to urgent issues. This piece however bring nothing to the table but to suggest that we should ditch our civilized and organized cities for a place that does not disturb the nature.