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London redefined

Eliza 29/02/08, 17:01

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grafoxst.jpg
situation 9, 2007

Strip a city street of all its commercial clutter and is it still identifiable? This is one of the questions posed by a series of artworks by Austrian artist Gregor Graf, currently on show at the Austrian Cultural Forum in London.

Graf mixes old technology with new in his work, using medium format photography to take the initial shots of a city before removing, via Photoshop, all traces of language and signage from the images, including commercials signs, street signs, people and traffic. The cities become virtually unrecognisable as a result, and oddly sinister. Graf has previously photographed Linz and Warsaw in this style, and turned his attention to London when commissioned to create some works by the Visual Arts Platform at the Austrian Cultural Forum. Shown above is a blissfully quiet Oxford Street…

grafsoho.jpg
situation 12, 2007

… while here are streets in Soho…

grafvictoria.jpg
situation 11, 2007

… Victoria…

grafpaddington.jpg
situation 10, 2007

and Paddington.

Hidden Town will be on show until April 4.

Posted in Photography Art

Comments(6 comments)

Beautiful imagery - visually arresting and hauntingly striking!

Posted by jordan nelson on 02/03/08, 3:17 pm

Personally I find it astounding just how lost I was looking at the images of London Streets I’ve walked down countless times - simply because of the removal of the branding, signs and other day to day distractions like cars and people. I’d never realised how reliant I am on these factors to help me find my way around!

Posted by Helen-LG on 04/03/08, 4:53 pm

“Strip a city street of all its commercial clutter and is it still identifiable?”

Here’s missing much more then just ‘commercial clutter’!

Posted by Rubs on 05/03/08, 11:11 pm

the Cafe Nero blue is still too distinct. I recognised it straight away I am afraid.

Posted by thomas Brasington on 06/03/08, 1:34 am

Looks like the virtual game map from Driver

Posted by Gavin on 06/03/08, 3:46 pm

28 days later…

Posted by Ron Jonzo on 07/03/08, 5:20 pm

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