Lost Time
Antony Densham >

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By Antony Densham

The inspiration for this project was a visit to Cambodia in 1998. The temples are astounding accomplishments, and I wondered how human hands and minds are capable of such intense involvement. Using computer simulations, it has been shown that the ground plan of the Angkor complex - the terrestrial placements of its principal temples - mirrors the stars in the constellation of Draco at the time of spring equinox in 10,500 BC. While the date of this astronomical alignment is far earlier than any known construction at Angkor, it appears that its purpose was to architecturally mirror the heavens in order to assist in the harmonization of the earth and stars.

The objects presented here are abstracted architectural models. Meandering forms that grow via conformation followed by the odd disruption. These small rebellions are the awakening from the known. This arbitrary and simple system gives rise to complex arrangements.

If the model maker is the dreamer, then the architect translates the dream for the makers. Unfortunately, practical limitations can compromise the dream. The model maker or artist is able to design a building which is liberated from those constraints. A building then becomes other things.

How have the temples in Angkor survived the ravages of time? Nature cloaks the temples in mystery. The encroaching forest brings serpentine roots of Banyan trees breaking through huge blocks of rock and the massive trunks straddle the great monuments. Humans too have left their mark. Looters have torn apart bas-relief sculptures to sell to museums and collectors. Thankfully, conservation efforts will help to reduce the human threat of the structures so impressively made in scale and ornament. To acknowledge these disruptions, whether it is delivered from nature or humans, is to realize that even monuments made of stone are fleeting arrangements.

Time compression is a modern phenomenon. To navigate around this dilemma is to reduce as much complexity as possible in order to attain a more singular focus. Ironically, to surrender to a simple way of working can produce complex scenarios. This process works well when the form made comes from no preconception. The task is to make one layer at a time, being firmly present in that space and time. To say there is a definitive final form is to say there is one shape of tree or cloud.  To make these objects begs the question: when to stop? In this case, it is the recognition of a departure from the architectural.  Therefore, it can be said that material reduction and scale reduction are strategies used by the model maker/artist to encapsulate time, and to bring about emergent behavior.

One could say the dreamer tries to acknowledge the labour of humans alongside a much longer span of time where weather beaten rocks dissolve and later evolve again, in cycles that hold no register in human years.