“Industrialism should have an insistence on textures and patterns created by non-artists (industrial professionals), without the conscious decision to make something artistically pleasing. From the perspective of the non-artist, what s/he creates serves an entirely functional purpose and the aesthetics are not considered...”

vowehr
Digital art
2016 - 2022

“vowehr” is a name. It represents my digital existence. In digital spaces like Instagram and Flickr, I upload work created on photoshop and illustrator under the name “vowehr”.

This name is an important part of the work, as often the starting point of a piece is the design of a new style of font or logo design variation of this name.
I think its important to state that “vowehr” is a digital entity foremost because my digital art has a clear tonal difference to my sculptural practise.

“vowehr” is very clearly focused on themes of blood, flesh, death, camouflage etc. themes that invoke danger or eeriness. 


Industrial Space 3 at Central Saint Martins 2022 degree show
2022, Square archway made of aluminium OPTI® Trilite® 200 Series Triangular Truss base, and timber tiling batten frame,
clad in Tyvek® FireCurb® breather membrane and Ambex® Surface Protection sheets







Industrial Space 3


Industrial Space 3 fades into the existing architecture of the CSM building. It resembles a construction site and implies there is new architecture to be added to CSM. I observed the audience reaction (or lack thereof) to this piece, especially during the first two open evenings wherein most attendees were students or in a creative industry. There seemed to be little attention paid to it at all. I had forecasted this a month earlier- when in my dissertation I used research into Brutalism and High-Tech architecture styles to explore peoples’ determination of value.

In the ethics of Brutalism laid out by the Smithsons, the honesty of construction and of construction materials was paramount to (at least the beginning of) the movement. In High-Tech the presentation of pure Maths and Engineering through the use of industrial and mass-produced materials and elements was not disrespected, but it never grew into the cultural zeitgeist as did Brutalism. High-Tech’s use of industrial archetypes was too relatable to subconscious feelings of “construction”/“unfinished”/“warehouse”/“factory” and was therefore all to easy to be dismissed without nuance.

As the son of an Architect, I am not unaware of buildings during construction and destruction. I find these transient stages to be the more interesting and unappreciated phases of a building’s life cycle.

So, why did attendees not notice my work? Why do we only see a building until after its completion? Why is discussion about a building’s construction or destruction only ever a prefix to what will be the “completed thing”? In this time of bland, stagnant and repetitive buildings with little design quality, Industrial Space 3 attempts to bring the keen-eyed’s attention to the value of the industrial aesthetic, to the value of honest materials and the purely functional design of the construction phase.  


INFORMATION

Soviet dreams, Desert life


Interactive portfolio website created by Gabriel Orengo-Walter

Gabriel Orengo-Walter is a design and aesthetic-focused artist; approaching his sculptural practise at Central Saint Martins with themes of temporality, interaction, destruction, decay and construction. 

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