Core or The Heart of Europe – The Pulse of Civilization
Core is the second part of Edge, Core, Weld series project, which explores feelings through juxtaposition of two symbolically opposite places of Europe.
Edge, Core, Weld looks at Europe as a whole, with it’s pulsing heart in the center – ‘core’; and the skin on the border – ‘edge’. Europe is a continent of history so this project explores not only iconic but rather symbolic locations: London, which once used to be the center of Europe – the core of western civilization; and Algarve region in Portugal, which was once considered as the ending point of the world.
Once England was the most powerful country, the economical, cultural and political capital of this world. It’s pulsing heart was London as it remained till today. As this city was born on the northern bank of river Thames I went to capture it – the core of this past civilization.
I wanted to express the essence of it in a single artwork, by capturing the pulsating rhythm of the northern bank at night-time when it comes alive, when it seems that you can really feel this place’s pulsing heart.
The linear aspect ratio of the picture suggests an assimilation to a diagram of a pulsing heart. It’s division in two parts, top and bottom, represents different eras. The colorful and glowing city at the top represents present; and the grey and blurry river reflects past.
The artwork is made of thousands of images, which were taken during several nights slowly moving by the southern embankment of Thames, from Tower Bridge to the Palace of Westminster, the distance of more than 4 kilometers. Using heavy digital manipulation, all were blended by hand into one single artwork, also removing distracting objects, such as ships, cranes and bridges.
2013-2014 © Gus Petro
Price and availability upon request.
