MP1. Les Landes, Jersey, Channel Islands 1944
The Atlantic Wall: Bunker and/as Modern Architecture
MP2. 3D print on wool
Horizon Hankies 1-12. Water, salt and dye on silk
Grey Area
Grey Area is a new work created by Sophie Tarbuck and commissioned especially for The Jersey Arts Centre in 2011. Whilst researching the impact of the Modern Movement in Jersey, Tarbuck discovered the bunkers and buildings left behind after the Second World War. Known as part of the Atlantic Wall built by Nazi Germany, these fortifications ran the entire western coast of Europe, from the south west of France all the way to the north of Norway.
Tarbuck was drawn to the bunkers in terms of their history but also as architectural monuments that celebrate Modern Movement architecture. This conflict of interests is reflected in the title Grey Area which suggests the middle ground, of something existing between two extremes and having mixed characteristics of both. It also corresponds to the literal ‘grey area’ that emerged as concrete fortifications between central Europe and Britain.
Grey Area is a new work created by Sophie Tarbuck and commissioned especially for The Jersey Arts Centre in 2011. Whilst researching the impact of the Modern Movement in Jersey, Tarbuck discovered the bunkers and buildings left behind after the Second World War. Known as part of the Atlantic Wall built by Nazi Germany, these fortifications ran the entire western coast of Europe, from the south west of France all the way to the north of Norway.
Tarbuck was drawn to the bunkers in terms of their history but also as architectural monuments that celebrate Modern Movement architecture. This conflict of interests is reflected in the title Grey Area which suggests the middle ground, of something existing between two extremes and having mixed characteristics of both. It also corresponds to the literal ‘grey area’ that emerged as concrete fortifications between central Europe and Britain.
Based on the essay by Gennaro Postiglione The Atlantic Wall: Bunker and/as Modern Architecture Tarbuck has taken the narrative and re-presented it in visual terms. Drawing on photographs of celebrated architecture and presenting them alongside interpretations on the Jersey bunkers, Tarbuck weaves an inter-relationship between the contradictions, abstractly visualising the links and histories that Postiglione describes.
The study deconstructs and lays bare the parts – histories, images and reinterpretations – of the concrete bunkers allowing the viewer opportunity to reconsider these structures.
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Copyright © Sophie Tarbuck.