a step towards abstraction

Yan Hui, architect and assistant professor of architecture

It was on a cold Sunday afternoon in the city of Gwangju (South Korea), autumn had passed and winter was slowly creeping in. To my surprise, an email from Francesco arrived, requesting myinput for this section. I could not have been more delighted. I read the draft manuscript and felt I was immediately transported to my friend’s heady travel journeys and experiences through Asia: the colours, the smells, and the sounds. I was hooked. To the faint hum of the Café Del Mar classical music, here we go…

I first met Francesco in Hong Kong in 2008. We were fellow architects in the same architectural practice. What struck me about him was his persistent approach to the pursuance of elegance and refinement, seeking beauty within simplicity and an honest representation of objects and spaces in art, architecture, and design.

All good architects have a secret fetish for minimalism, all speak a common design language, and hold to a less is more mentality. It may only be known to few, as evidenced in Francesco’s collaboration on a John Pawson’s design in London, that he has high regard for the minimal approach to design, careful selection of materials, and the careful usage, control, and manipulation of light and shadow. This ideology exists in his paintings, albeit with a more colourful and mesmerizing approach.

Francesco’s artistic approach differs slightly in that he seeks to capture emotions and feelings from his journeys. Almost like capturing a particular aroma and sealing it in glass bottle, his method is the brush, paint, canvas, combined with an imaginative use of colours, rendering reality into two- dimensional planes, capturing that particular experience, freezing it in time, and transferring it to canvas.

It is 2018 and ten years have passed since we first met. One can see the growth and maturity of an artist, having made his mark and establishing himself as a key figure within Hong Kong’s art scene. We witnessed the beginnings of his experimental phase during the years in London, the growth phase of his works arising from his well-documented travels in Asia, revealing art that captures dazzling scenes of nature, architecture, and of landscapes. And now we witness his maturation unravelling in Hong Kong, with the exploration of the urban city as a subject, in the process revealing Francesco’s true experience and interpretation of this unique city.

It is the artist’s desire and hope to continue to evolve, grow, and adapt, and not to stagnate. Hence the need to push for new boundaries, to move to the next level, to enter the next stage of abstraction, a term he defines as “abstract spin.” Abstract in the sense that forms are to be further morphed and manipulated, perhaps simplified or made more complex, leading to abstraction. Spin, in the sense that there will be continuation of the subjects explored, the city, scenes original to the locality, and natural landscapes, but using means of abstraction to give it a different take.

“The more I attempt to make something real as a painter, the more abstract it becomes. I love this paradox.” Quote from Eric Aho.

During our recent conversations and my query of the term abstract spin, Francesco had this to say: “My artistic style is constantly evolving over time, time being something that can be measured, quantified, and is constant. However, when I paint, I add, subtract, make it more complex, make it more simple, the experimental approach is continuous and the end result is always unique. I do not believe in doing the same things over and over again. I see abstraction as a means to further capture the true essence of the city. I want to focus on the feelings of density, energy, and vibrancy. I think this could be an interesting evolution of an artist. Painted art should be about feeling and not necessarily for depicting reality, for reality we have the camera. I do not see my development as a linear approach, but rather an organic and experimental approach, true to the sense of adventure and surprise, like life.”

A question that gets put forward to Francesco on numerous occasions is, “Why paint in two dimensions?” To the casual observer, this seems overly simplified and basic. His explanation allows one to enter the artist’s mind and to further understand his approach to painting and his means of portraying selected experiences and subjects.

As architects, when we design buildings, the design is primarily conceived in two dimensions: we have the plan, the section, the elevation, the axonometric, the isometric, and one- and two- point perspective drawings. Drawings are two-dimensional, and, hence as architects, we employ different drawing conventions to express three-dimensional information via two dimensional drawn representation.

Due to Francesco’s architectural background and his longings to capture architectural subjects interwoven into the urban fabric and natural landscapes, the two-dimensional elevation drawing convention is used as a means to describe the architecture and buildings featured in his paintings. So long as architecture and buildings remain the subject, the two-dimensional method remains the preferred choice, easily understandable by all.

The abstraction process that we have begun to witness, is the breaking down and simplification of the material world, re-interpreted, and re- imagined by the painter, who expresses this in two-dimensional layers like slides of his past memories and experiences captured on canvas.

“When I relive my memories and revoke these feelings, in my mind I see a multitude of two-dimensional planes. Sometimes it is a single plane and sometimes there are multiple planes, layered one atop the other akin to how we remember and visualize childhood memories: the sounds, smells, emotions, feelings, and colors all merging and morphing together creating a sensory experience that is interpreted collectively as a two-dimensional plane or screen shot. I want viewers to experience that particular memory and re-interpret it themselves, creating their own interpretation. To go down the route of realism destroys the purpose, evoking different feelings to a single chosen experience and memory, is what I seek to achieve.” Quote from Francesco.

So what is next? The experimentation and evolution of an artist is not a means to an end, but rather of necessity. From Francesco’s work, we witnessed a beginning, an organic development phase, and maturity. What happens next is anyone’s guess, but we can be sure to expect more beautiful and emotional works of art and a few surprises along the way.

“The connection to place, to the land, the wind, the sun, the stars, the moon … it sounds romantic, but it’s true. The visceral experience of motion, of moving through time on some amazing machine inspires me, a few cars can touch on it, but not too many. Motorcycles get one closer. I always felt that any motorcycle journey was special.”Quote from Antoine Predock.

Every motorcycle journey has a beginning, the journey itself, and the end at the destination. However, there is always the next trip in the making as we speak.