- Green light Review

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‘Whether Armilla is like this because it is unfinished or because it has
been demolished, whether the cause is some enchantment or only a
whim, I do not know. The fact remains that it has no walls, no ceilings,
no floors: it has nothing that makes it seem a city except the water
pipes that rise vertically where the houses should be and spread out
horizontally where the floors should be: a forest of pipes that end in
taps, showers, spouts, overflows. Against the sky a lavabo's white
stands out, or a bathtub, or some other porcelain, like late fruit still
hanging from the boughs. You would think that the plumbers had
finished their job and gone away before the bricklayers arrived; or else
their hydraulic systems, indestructible, had survived a catastrophe, an
earthquake, or the corrosion of termites.
Abandoned before or after it was inhabited, Armilla cannot be called
deserted. At any hour, raising your eyes among the pipes, you are likely
to glimpse a young woman, or many young women, slender, not tall
of stature, luxuriating in the bathtubs or arching their backs under the
showers suspended in the void, washing or drying or perfuming
themselves, or combing their long hair at a mirror. In the sun, the
threads of water fanning from the showers glisten, the jets of the taps,
the spurts, the splashes, the sponges' suds.
I have come to this explanation: the streams of water channeled in the
pipes of Armilla have remained in the possession of nymphs and
naiads. Accustomed to traveling along underground veins, they
found it easy to enter the new aquatic realm, to burst from multiple
fountains, to find new mirrors, new games, new ways of enjoying the
water. Their invasion may have driven out the human beings, or Armilla
may have been built by humans as a votive offering to win the favour
of the nymphs, offended at the misuse of the waters. In any case, now
they seem content, these maidens: in the morning you hear them
singing.’

After creating thumbnails and looking into each of the
fourteen studies, I have decided to dive into the city of
Armilla. My Goal is to really capture the daily life aspect of
Armilla, which was addressed in the description, including
the different activities that take place within the city and how
the nymphs interact with the watery city around them.
When creating each thumbnail the main influence of the city was London. I
feel this city best represented how I imagined the atmosphere of Armilla would
be like. Including how London uses the 'Underground' as a form of transport. I
decided I would include this and create the 'Underwater' where nymphs would
travel by pipes. Reflecting back on how the city is described as unfished,
aspects of the underwater will be incomplete.
One of the features I had to take into consideration when creating the city was
the scale. Thinking about how the city was ‘man made’ and mostly made out
of pipes I couldn’t help but feel that maybe the whole city was set either in or
on a pipe, underneath a bath. I feel like just showing a bathtub and a glow
coming from underneath the plug really indicates the life inhabitants are living
below in the underwater depths.
When creating the building of the city's ‘buildings’ I took into consideration not
only the pipes but the idea of bathtubs/showers, acting as the skyscrapers of
the city with giant nymphs bathing inside, while the smaller nymphs helping to
supply them with water, and soap.
I even created a building constructed out of a tap and large bubbles that would
house nymphs that would create bubbles for fellow inhabitants to use to
access high areas.
The main colour that was discussed within the description of the city was
lavabo's white, so for colours I decided to go for much cooler tones, such as
blues and greens. In using these colours it really showcases the aesthetic of
the city, along with the misty, cold yet bright look I imagine the city to have. I
have also added in more purplish colours as I believe it was create contrast
with the similar colours and also add different darker and lighter tones
throughout the paintings I create of Armilla.