Banqueting House, 2007
37 x 75 x 42 inches
Laminated vinyl inkjet prints on fiberglass, paint and urethane foam
Banqueting House is a sculpture produced by the model of perspective of a camera in combination with a Palladian architectural gestalt. The sculpture is based on a building of the same name in London that was designed in 1619-1622 by Inigo Jones and decorated with ceiling panels by Peter Paul Rubens. Following Vitruvian models of proportion and form the great hall of the building is a double cube: 52 feet wide, 52 feet high and 104 feet long. Photographs were made of the entire interior of the great hall from a standing viewpoint in the center of the room, halfway between the entry and the throne. Using these photographs, a form was produced conforming to the model of perspective presented by the camera in the photographs combined with the shape of the double-cube of the hall. This form was cut from foam by a computer, reinforced with fiberglass and finally wrapped with the reversed image of the interior of the great hall. This results in a 3 foot wide by 3 foot high by 6 foot long demonstration of sculptural volume with the simultaneous photographic denial of it.