Patrick Coll is an artist who lives and works in New Orleans, Louisiana. In 2013 he received an MFA in Printmaking from Tulane University, New Orleans, LA. In 2007 he received a BFA in Painting from Savannah College of Art and Design, Savannah, GA. He considers New Hampshire a nice place to be from.
Contact: [email protected]
Contact: [email protected]
Artist Statement
Architecture is ideology. During the early twentieth century, Modernist architecture sought a utopian future. There was a prevailing belief that architecture could reshape society, that the world could be made a better place if we just try harder, be smarter and plan for the future. Today, this utopian impulse, this unbridled optimism is regarded at best as foolishly naive and at worst dangerously fascistic. What happened? Where, how and why did we, collectively, lose our ability to dream new utopias? My work takes these questions as its starting point, tracing the history of the utopian impulse. Rather than proposing a singular example of what today's utopia should look like, I seek to understand the past before trying to devise a plan for the future.
In my work I adopt one of the primary concerns of modernism, transparency, advocated most strongly by the architect Mies van der Rohe. Utilizing transparency in my prints serves as a metaphor for seeing through these structures and their history and allows me to layer one architectural form on top of another, collapsing the history of twentieth century utopianism onto itself.
There is an important relationship between the outdated medium of printmaking and the historical forms depicted. Printmaking has a very strong connection to propaganda, both governments and individuals have utilized printmaking technology to both educate and persuade populations, ostensibly for the benefit of all. Just as the ideological promise of modernist architecture has been abandoned, the ability of printmaking to educate or induce change has been surpassed by more effective and subtle technologies of persuasion and control. It could be argued that to continue to investigate the utopian impulse must surely be a fool's errand, just as to cling to an outdated medium must imply an anachronistic impulse. However, it could also be argued that in order to plan for the future one must begin with the past.
Architecture is ideology. During the early twentieth century, Modernist architecture sought a utopian future. There was a prevailing belief that architecture could reshape society, that the world could be made a better place if we just try harder, be smarter and plan for the future. Today, this utopian impulse, this unbridled optimism is regarded at best as foolishly naive and at worst dangerously fascistic. What happened? Where, how and why did we, collectively, lose our ability to dream new utopias? My work takes these questions as its starting point, tracing the history of the utopian impulse. Rather than proposing a singular example of what today's utopia should look like, I seek to understand the past before trying to devise a plan for the future.
In my work I adopt one of the primary concerns of modernism, transparency, advocated most strongly by the architect Mies van der Rohe. Utilizing transparency in my prints serves as a metaphor for seeing through these structures and their history and allows me to layer one architectural form on top of another, collapsing the history of twentieth century utopianism onto itself.
There is an important relationship between the outdated medium of printmaking and the historical forms depicted. Printmaking has a very strong connection to propaganda, both governments and individuals have utilized printmaking technology to both educate and persuade populations, ostensibly for the benefit of all. Just as the ideological promise of modernist architecture has been abandoned, the ability of printmaking to educate or induce change has been surpassed by more effective and subtle technologies of persuasion and control. It could be argued that to continue to investigate the utopian impulse must surely be a fool's errand, just as to cling to an outdated medium must imply an anachronistic impulse. However, it could also be argued that in order to plan for the future one must begin with the past.
