Output details

Fictional Spaces. A series of site-specific wall paintings, projections and drawings, investigating the dynamics of real architecture in relation to surface and depicted space, with particular reference to the formal devices of Roman wall painting.

The research questions in this project were: what are the practical principles and formal devices of Roman wall paintings, what are their implications for contemporary painters, and how can they extend the field of contemporary site-specific wall painting?

These questions extend Huber’s previous research into representations of architectural and complex spaces through experimental drawing, collage and painting.

In this research, undertaken whilst an Abbey Fellow in painting at the British School at Rome (BSR), Huber began the systematic analysis of Roman painting’s compositional and structural elements / formal strategies, and their relationship to their built surroundings. Strategies explored included the sophisticated play of ‘open’ and ‘closed’ walls, visual tricks to reconnect the paintings with the physical wall, and the creation of multi-faceted relationships between composition of the wall paintings and function of the room.

Huber tested these strategies, developing a series of site-specific wall paintings for contrasting international venues, each site allowing for a new solution. For example, at the BSR, she tested the use of flat geometrical elements to create alternating niches that visually bend the wall backwards and forwards. At the Hatton Gallery, large photographic prints of collages interconnected with the wall painting, thus re-configuring Roman trompe l’oeil, while also integrating Schwitters’ Merzbarn wall.

Unlike much contemporary wall painting that either responds to architecture (e.g. Caramelle, Götz, Tremlett), or uses it as its canvas (e.g. Akkermann, Lewitt, Ritchie), Huber’s approach aimed to find new ways to set up both a dynamic and a balance between fictional painted and actual built architecture and therefore adds significantly to this field.

A book published by Art Editions North (ISBN: 978-1-906832-09-4) provides texts by other experts in the field – art historians and archaeologists, and firmly positions this research within a contemporary fine art context.