Degenerate Chromatism
An Urban Art Installation inspired by Abandoned Buildings in Berlin
What started out as an urbex photography mission to document the vivid colors and ambiance of a graffiti-covered edifice in Berlin, later grew into the installation project entitled ‘Degenerate Chromatism’. The resulting photographs captured the brightly painted walls of an office building right on the edge of the Spree river which would sadly succumb to redevelopment… I moved to Berlin in 2012, and since then, the architectural topography of the city has changed drastically especially the highly-valued land along the banks of the Spree. Some areas are almost unrecognizable. One of my favorite places back then used to be a barren wasteland with standing remnants of the Berlin wall and sci-fi looking piles of construction debris scattered throughout. It has been completely cleared and pristine apartment complexes stand there today having erased all visual traces of the historical character and essence of Berlin which was found there before.
(View more photos from the series here: Fuck Off Media Spree)
Part of my first experiences of Berlin and the excitement of moving back to Europe after having spent most of my life up to that point in the U.S., was exploring the many abandoned buildings around the city. There were plenty of these beautiful places to check out. Unfortunately, most of them including the office building which inspired this project, have been either demolished or are in the process of being turned into other things- offices, apartments, fancy co-working spaces, etc.
I wanted to recreate some sort of semblance of the magical atmosphere of this derelict place. The goal of the installation was to create a new environment to be experienced and emotionally processed by visitors as I had done when I was exploring the original decaying rooms of the abandoned building.
The installation was created for the street art exhibition ‘Silence is a Lie’ which featured over 100 international artists in 2012. Through the combination of mixed media sculpture and paste-ups, the giant neon rat monster and its grotesque surroundings were born.
There was supposed to be a cyclical element to the installation where I had planned to bring the rat creature and details of his space back into the abandoned building. By the time the show ended, however, the building had been so well sealed-off and could no longer be easily accessed to transport the larger-than-life urban rat monster inconspicuously… Today, the building no longer exists.
An article about ‘Silence is a Lie’ and a photo of the organizers in front of ‘Degenerate Chromatism’ was published in Tip Berlin in July 2012.
