Casas blancas cielos azules means white houses, blue skies in Spanish.
I lived in Casablanca, Morocco from 2015 – 2017. Taking photographs of white buildings against clear blue skies I fragmented and mirrored them using the same principles applied in traditional Islamic design. The process abstracts the buildings from their original form and this new entity floats in front of blueprints of pencil-line drawings of traditional Islamic patterns.
Everything is beautiful in Casablanca as long as you are looking up…
Casablanca, a North African city, built by the French with a Spanish name; conjuring images of Hollywood romance, it was once the dream of empire and is now the financial capital of Morocco spearheading modernisation and development. It is a new city, full of people drawn by the promise of opportunity and wealth. It is a city of extremes, chaotic streets, but a clear, clean light, white buildings and bluer than blue cloudless skies day after day.
The series is a study of pattern and form exploring the tension between the drive of modernity and nostalgia for the past.