Tomma Abts
When I was invited to paint the façade of a living block in Tirana, I chose House 12 for its comparatively small size and simple shape. I also liked the wall and small building in front, which lend the house a more intimate feel.
I have divided the surface of the main building into vertical stripes, then horizontally cut it in half by a wavy line, and visually disjointed the two halves along that line. (After many different sketches, I arrived at this idea when I was looking at my painting “Feio”, 2007, acrylic and oil on canvas, 48x38cm.)
I wanted to treat the building as one structure, but at the same time destabilize its objectness by giving the design some optical movement.
The colours, off-white, mustard yellow-beige, and dark warm red are loosely based on colours that were already there - the white on the colour of the building before it was painted, the mustard and red on the colours of the wall and building in front.
I decided to leave the wall and small building unpainted, to keep their faded colours in contrast to the newly painted main building.
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