San Francisco's Highlight Gallery will shortly host a remarkable solo exhibition of architectural imagery by Belgian artist Filip Dujardin. Note the avoidance of the word photography. Though Dujardin's photographs provide the building blocks for his work, the end result are fantastical, Photoshopped constructions depicting nonsensical or even impossible architecture.
Dujardin became interested in architectural photography because of the inherent sculptural qualities of building forms. With such purity of purpose, it seems logical that Dujardin began creating digital architectural sculptures of his own, unfettered by client whims, economic constraints or the laws of physics.
And that's precisely how Dujardin's "Fictions" came about. According to an interview given to Elle Decor, a single image may incorporate 150 or more "fragments" from Dujardin's personal library of architectural features and building textures, photographed over the years. Initially experimenting in Photoshop, removing a door here or a window there, Dujardin progressed to building and photography LEGO maquettes to which his photographed textures are applied.
"Adding shadows, that’s the main trick," Dujardin told Elle Decor. "The building becomes real if the shadows are well done."
The images here are among those that will be exhibited at Highlight Gallery, and are based on two photography shoots that took place last year, when Dujardin was invited to Deauville, a town on the north coast of France, and to Guimarães in northern Portugal.
The solo exhibition will take place at Highlight Gallery from February 7 to March 29. In the meantime, take to our gallery for high resolution JPEGs of Dujardin's work. More of Dujardin's work can be seen at his website.
Sources: Highlight Gallery, Elle Decor
All images courtesy of Highlight Gallery
