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Abstract architecture

of superstructures

BEIRUT: Many people are fascinated by the U.S., whether it

is by New Yorks skyscrapers, the Bronx and Brooklyn

Heights, or San Franciscos Golden Gate Bridge and Las

Vegas landscapes.

Lebanese photographerElie Khourytook a new approach to

these cities while visiting the U.S., as evidenced by his latest

exhibition, Still Image Creativity of Indefinite

Superstructures, now up at Gemmayzehs ArtLab gallery.

Thirty-five photographs taken as Khoury toured the three cities

reveal the artists focus on architecture and show something of

the immense creativity that can be found in building designs,

both modern and contemporary.

KhourysNew Yorkcan be separated into two parts: the

professional sector, full of skyscrapers designed to house

luxurious offices, and a more personal city that shines through

in the broad range of residential buildings.

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Some viewers may think anyone can take photographs of

buildings. Theyre not wrong there. However, Khoury

differentiates himself from any amateur artist by his creativeuse of perspective, color and angle. The buildings are not

objects relegated to the background of daily life, but have been

transformed into the subjects, taking on lives of their own

when glimpsed through Khourys lenses.

Graffitian art form often dismissed as vandalismforms an

integral part of Khourys cityscapes, and plays a major role in

bringing character to the buildings faades.

One of Khourys works, an eye-catching base of immaculate

white punctuated by strokes of electric blue paint, resembles

an abstract painting at first glance. The viewer is reminded of

Khourys focus on architecture only by the little window just

visible in the upper right-hand corner.

Another of his photographs focuses on two parts of the same

building. Shot from the bottom up, the curvy architecture of

the edifice, captured from Khourys cunning perspective,

creates the impression that the building is protruding from the

flat surface of the photograph.

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The images shot inLas Vegasare much more colorful than the

others in the exhibition. Bright pinks and blues enliven the

paper, as though a painter had incorporated a touch of dramainto the landscape. Closer inspection reveals that these shades

are merely the reflection of the sunlight on the buildings glass

faades, astutely emphasized through Khourys lens.

The bustling neighborhood full of cosmopolitan locals and

tourists is not Khourys focus, as it usually is when someone

visits Americas party town. Here too, buildings are the

photographers muses.

Khourys photographs are the fruits of an end-of-year project

that he completed when studying photography at USEK.

Khourys refreshing visions invite his viewers to reflect on the

architectural structures that surround us all without

acknowledgmentwhether in the U.S. or elsewhere in the

world.

Although traditional houses and buildings around the world

are being torn down to make way for contemporary edifices,

this process should not always be seen as a catastrophe,Khourys photographs seem to say, but as means welcoming

and immersing ourselves in the positive aspects of

modernization.

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The same can be said of his photographs of San Francisco.

Buildings are given new meaning and become part of an

architectural Renaissance when glimpsed through Khouryseyes.

Beauty can be seen in globalization. It can be deciphered in

skyscrapers. This is what Khoury is trying to show us in the

humorously named Still Image Creativity of Indefinite

Superstructures.

Elie Khourys Still Image Creativity of Indefinite

Superstructures is on show at Gemmayzehs ArtLab gallery

until July 26. For more information, please visit www.art-

lab.me

Read more:http://www.dailystar.com.lb/Arts-and-

Ent/Culture/2014/Jul-21/264511-abstract-architecture-of-

superstructures.ashx#ixzz383cWsiy2

(The Daily Star :: Lebanon News ::http://www.dailystar.com.lb)

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