TOWERING
Towering refers to the trees and concrete housing buildings they surround as they compete for airspace.
Aplin’s work is inspired by urban landscape, issues of urbanisation, social structure and the flux of city environments. I am interested in Brutalist architecture, modernism and finding beauty in the ordinary/ overlooked.
The subject matter is drawn from the numerous precast concrete low cost housing developments locate around Melbourne. Similar buildings can be found all around the world giving a globalised architectural familiarity , though a Melbourne resident will find them instantly recognisable, more so as they are paired with iconic Gum trees.
In many of Aplin’s new works no sky is shown. The towers and trees fill the canvas giving a sense of off putting inescapability. Dark voids and cut throughs beneath buildings beckoning the eye and mind to explore and imagine what is beyond, through or behind. Aplin’s use of shadow forces our attention to the emptiness, the forgotten corners in uncertain spaces where we are not given guidance on how to feel and respond.
Each work emphasises the different shapes and intersections of the imposing structures. Each finds a new variation in colour that the different times of day and year present.
