ARTIFACTS OF MEMORY | SOANE FOUNDATION FELLOWSHIP
In 1812, Sir John Soane wrote what must surly be one of the strangest manuscripts in the history of English architecture. In the work, he envisions hims self as an antiquarian, exploring the ruins of his own house. Though incomplete the manuscript sheds a light on Soane's imaginative design process as well as his memory, aspirations, and architectural references.
13 years later, Soane commissioned Joseph Michael Gandy to complete an enigmatic series of illustrations documenting his house museum. Soane and Gandy were both masters of technical perspective, yet the decision was made to complete the works by bending and breaking the rules of perspectival conventions.
My work and research was enabled as a recipient of the Sir John Soane's Museum Foundation Graduate fellowship generously provided but the Soane Foundation (https://soanefoundation.org/). As a Soane Museum Foundation fellow, I traveled to London to complete research into this rich and complex approach to space, convention, and memory. The drawings here are my analysis and speculative responses to the work of Soane and Gandy and are taken from a lecture I delivered as a part of the 2023 Soane Foundation lecture series. A link is provided to the lecture below.