UTOPIA- POST CHRISTCHURCH (2012/14)
53x52cm, Linocut Prints
DEDICATED TO ROGER WINKLEY
In 2011, the Christchurch City Council initiated the 'Share an Idea' campaign in a bit to consider the ideas of the people and how Christchurch could begin to rebuild itself after having its face permanently altered by a series of earthquakes, the worst occurring in 2010. The campaign yielded 106,000 submissions.
In this same vein, Davies embarked on his own revisioning Christchurch campaign via this series of Utopian imagined buildings and design proposals. Each work in the series depicts ultra-futuristic new civic buildings, city layouts and elements of monuments from the rubble, and gives them another form. Some are aerial views, like the view of Charlie's city from the glass elevator in the 1971 film Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory.
Sir Thomas More's literary work Utopia is the point of reference for Davis here. In Utopia, the protagonist Rachael Huthloday, discusses with Thomas More and Peter Giles, the various aspects of this fictions island called Utopia, of which are nine chapters' worth: the state of the commonwealth, their towns, their judicial system, trades and lifestyle, traffic, travelling habits, slavery and marriage, military discipline, and religious beliefs. Like More, Davies considers possible aspects through eighteen different works. He re-images prior landmarks and how they could be revised and placed in the cityscape. How might Christchurch be powered? How can it regain some of it's famous architectural judos after the destruction of the Cathedral and the Basilica? Like Thomas More's Utopia, there is a definite fictive element to Davies' proposals, but with the distinct view to a beautiful new Otautahi-Christchurch. Or is it all just a fantasy which can never really eventuate?
In this same vein, Davies embarked on his own revisioning Christchurch campaign via this series of Utopian imagined buildings and design proposals. Each work in the series depicts ultra-futuristic new civic buildings, city layouts and elements of monuments from the rubble, and gives them another form. Some are aerial views, like the view of Charlie's city from the glass elevator in the 1971 film Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory.
Sir Thomas More's literary work Utopia is the point of reference for Davis here. In Utopia, the protagonist Rachael Huthloday, discusses with Thomas More and Peter Giles, the various aspects of this fictions island called Utopia, of which are nine chapters' worth: the state of the commonwealth, their towns, their judicial system, trades and lifestyle, traffic, travelling habits, slavery and marriage, military discipline, and religious beliefs. Like More, Davies considers possible aspects through eighteen different works. He re-images prior landmarks and how they could be revised and placed in the cityscape. How might Christchurch be powered? How can it regain some of it's famous architectural judos after the destruction of the Cathedral and the Basilica? Like Thomas More's Utopia, there is a definite fictive element to Davies' proposals, but with the distinct view to a beautiful new Otautahi-Christchurch. Or is it all just a fantasy which can never really eventuate?
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