Painting:'Card Players in a Sunlit Room' by Pieter de Hooch 1652
Narrative: A widow alone in a vast space surrounded by memories
Pieter de Hooch decides to portray the full length of the scene, from the bottom of the floor to the top of the ceiling. This provides a large, tall frame for the activities of four characters - the three men are focused towards the lone woman, who despite the company looks detached and absorbed in her own thoughts. I thus deduced a narrative of a widow, like many elderly people, constantly living in the past. Memories possess their present.
My design is located in a forest clearing, a landing in a staircase - a thoroughfare. This means that people are constantly passing through this space, but rarely stop to linger, corresponding to the sense of a woman surrounded by movement and people, yet lonely. The glass panels, representing memories, are the same height as her, suggesting frames of people, which obstruct and guide the circulation through this space. The huge glass columns form a canopy, reacting to its forest surroundings, while also suggest a sense of structure and protection. However, the transparency of the materials is exposing, it imbues a sense of vulnerability and solitude. The translucent roofs provide comfort in the fact that they are there and can be seen, but in reality provide very little shelter. Much like the painting, this space is a skeleton of a house, but not a home. The tiles create a sense that this is a 'gathering of memories,' - they gather around the columns, columns group around others, trees group around this space. In this space, memories collide to create a realm between present and past.
