Diptych

The white dotted pivot on a circular carpet connects a semi-circle form of white and black, unifying to create one single round fluffy carpet. On its carpet, a leg of a skinny chair is stepping on. The chair has a thin, corrugated black seating and a backrest. The thin white flames of the chair seemingly made out of steel or aluminum tubes looks like a transparent structural
flame so that the black seating is floating, and remains just a configuration of a squiggling corrugation. Noticeably, the form of the chair is resembling an arc of a black stroke on the painting attached to the right side of the wall. On the right wall, a painting aligns itself to the edge of a window. In the image, a window is represented by a flush and black curtain. This flattens the window into a black square on the wall. Immediately to the left, a dark edge shows
the painting protruding from the wall. Just within these two objects on the wall, a mysterious diptych is set up. The typically three-dimensional architectural element is a two-dimensional art object, understood to have thickness and dimensionality.

In the right corner is a bed that begins on the blacked-out portion of the floor and extends past it. The black flack floor is flat, as a rug lags partially over it without change. The slight change in tone of black reveals the thicker blanket spread over the bed and draped over its left edge. The height of this draped edge, in turn, reveals the thickness of the bed. Regardless of these shifts in materiality and thickness, these objects reduce to juxtaposed surface graphics in the image. The combined black area of the black sheet’s cover on the bed and the black floor under the bed in the right backside, and the white lower wall behind the bed are corresponding to the way that the L-shape white wall may rotate 180 degrees in the center point of the object and 90 degrees incline in horizontal axis with adding a certain degree of expanding deformation. The boundary of the floor and its white wall occupies the area on the floor, which is bent and extended from the baseline of the wall. with this, the black side has also a similar feature in which the alignment at the right side of the bed and the right side of the wall in right is connected at the edge. In the top of the right black side of its wall, the edge line initiates an eye to track such a division of line purely dividing black and white. The line hits the backside of the wall perpendicularly attached to the right side of the wall. The line is bent to follow the wall. And right after that, the line encounters the vertically extended black zone. The line, however, follows the edge without blending or disturbing each other. Continuously, the line follows the edge of the black surface until the line hits the actual wall of the edge. To the left, the line runs the edge of the wall through the intersection point between the black and white. Arrived at the corner of the white wall and meet the gap between a wall and a bendable screen. The moment creates the equation in a way to formulate that the authority of 2-dimensional graphics quality becomes equal to 3-dimensional physical property in space. The line becomes a factor to speak out with a graphic quality through the thickness and dimensionality. 1 The folding screen is located adjacent to the backside of the wall. The sliding pieces seem to act as ensuring private to mediate between the right side of the daybed in the salon and left side of the shower room, and guest room in the right hand. 2

The screen itself is subdivided by three pieces composed of black and whiteboards, for flexibility and creating a more dynamic and radical configuration. The color of material and in space predominantly occupies the visibility. A side table next to the divan is attached right above the white reflective table. They both act as a large tile surface corresponding to the floor of the tiles. 3 The variety of orientations for each profile such as diverse infill and overlay plane enriches the appearance of arrested motion. 4

There is a dual reality that compositionally redefines in a viewer’s imagination in a space in accord to not merely the presence of contrast among black and white but also a blank-and-fill-in relationship. A black surface is somehow missing a piece of a puzzle while a white one is filled in. The phenomena of layering and delineation embrace a stylish abstraction of space. 5 The compositional interpretation may remind the viewer of the cubist art of De Stijl. The compositional interpretation may remind the viewer of the cubist art of De Stijl. [Fig.01] The tonal balance of darkness and brightness is a key factor to verbalize themselves. 6 A black and white painted side table with different linear alignments and shapes of planar surfaces which can allow to rotate in asymmetric. The work so-called De Stijl table was made in 1923. One of the neoplasticism, Jan Wils realized Eileen Gray’s work in one of her exhibitions in Paris. The communication between objects and viewers is established by seeing through the contrast of black and white. Through the effect, this photograph itself seems just to capture the moment out of a series of motion flow. One sees the object as illusionary moving from one place to another. However, the existence of materiality and objectivity of architectural elements which bring back to the reality happens in a single view. The process of noticing is extremely juxtaposed. Confusion, abstraction, dreaminess attracts the viewer’s eye. 7 The left and the front side of the lounge chair imitates human’s fingers waiting for holding something. The material of its fabric looks like human skin. And as an object itself reminds of three fingers which are composed of three fabric tubes stacked together. This represents a sense of humanity that seems heterogeneous in this photograph since other
elements are absolute and cold objects as a graphic. This lounge chair is floating by supported by the metal piping flame.

In the late period of the 19th century, there was a woman who was enthusiastically learning art in her college in London. She was very much independent since she was young so that she always wanted to get away from her family to be free. Her name is Eileen Gray who designed this house, E.1027 when she was around 50. The photograph is a salon space in the
house.[Fig.02] She describes the house which was purposefully created for a private vacation residence as the “Dwelling as a living organism” in a sense that whoever living in this house can find a sense of total independence and concentration. 8

The atmosphere of solitude derives from her passion for independence. She never considered sufficient enough to be willing to share a house with somebody. The room is absolute in terms of multi-functional purpose,  becoming a place of eating, resting, reading, and relaxing. 9 Space and all the furniture complement each other to interact and enhance the sense of atmosphere, touch, room, movement, and body10. It is, in other words, an extension of Eileen Gray’s world as if to introduce herself. As an artistic communication of humans, object, and space, it is always related to the
creator’s own experience. Showing a room is translating her body to view in a way that each design of furniture was designed with every single detail was thought of how to let it serve to users in the most sophisticated way to respond to the user’s lifestyle, desire, and appreciation. The table next to the daybed serves those who might be lying down on the bed and put his/her
coffee cup, for instance. The black fabric of bed sheets, therefore, imitates her intimate body contact such as her hair, her skirts, and her sleeves. 11The table becomes her bare-armed or barefoot. The screen becomes her dress with her legs free. There is always a story behind it that is tactically expected in each moment of space. Simultaneously, there is a relation between a person who is looking at something and a person who is something seen by someone. In other words, even if one becomes a camera, the other becomes a picture to view.12

For the sake of being seen, one needs to dress up to attract to provide the invitation to one’s notice. The awareness itself is closely associated with materiality, surface texture, and visibility.
13 Women’s bodies such as white walls would remove the hazy edges to provide a spectacle and visual pleasure. This is the play with exposure and concealment among the one who sees and one who desires to see. If the motion flow is captured by a screenshot of occurrence in the room every second, the moment becomes a cusp between the visible and the invisible.14 Here are so many forms of beauty that can discover: spheres, cylinders, winding and zigzag lines, arc lines, and straight lines in a movement to be seen.15

The photograph is a compositional arrangement of architectural elements. This composition creates a presence of interiority and the depth of space employing a careful manipulation of both the alignment of geometric patterns and the scalability of objects corresponding to the relationship between black and white. It is a prerequisite to argue that its diptych relationship represents the binary implications as the white color plays a role as a white canvas to stimulate something is going to happen while the area which is blacked out is acting as a trace of what it was. This creates the predominant spatial environment occupying another layer of spatial distance projected on a live space.

Bibliography

Jasmine Rault, “Eileen Gray: New Angles on Gender and Sexuality”, Thesis, McGill University, 2006

Jasmine Rault, “Occupying E.1027, Reconsidering Le Corbusier’s “Gift” to Eileen Gray”, Space and Culture vol.8 No.2, Sage Publications 2005

Wang, Wilfried. Adam, Peter. The O’Neil Ford Monograph Series Volume 7 E.1027. The University of Texas at Austin, Center for American Architecture and Design, O’Neil Ford Chair in Architecture: Ernst J. Wasmuth Verlag, Tübingen, Berlin, 2017

Adam, Peter. Eileen Gray, architect/ designer. Harry N. Abrams, Incorporated, Times Mirror Book. 1987

Gray, Eileen, Jean, Bedovici. E.1027: Maison en bord de mer. Edition Imbernon. 2015