Shapes, Islands and Text

Shapes, Islands and Text
Vibok Works, 2015.
Limited series of 100 numbered copies,
Authors: Cruz García & Nathalie Frankowski.
Introduction: Paula V. Álvarez & Sophie Salamon.
Book Design: García Frankowski.
Photos of the book: García Frankowski.

Get the book here.
Also available in Amazon.

Shapes, Islands and Text is a visual essay by architects and artists Nathalie Frankowski and Cruz García. The book presents three fundamental working tools for the art collective Garcia Frankowski in the form of a visual essay. Like a conceptual tryptique, they are three spheres of equal importance.

Shapes are explored through multiple strategies, from monochromatic paintings to collages of pure geometries; conceptual Islands are independent from any all-absorbing discourse, but one next to each other constitute theoretical archipelagoes; Texts sometimes are pure form and other times are independent like islands in the ocean. Although having the capacity to function autonomously, once placed on the same space these tools have the potential to create new narratives.

Along with the visual essay, Shapes, Islands and Text includes essays by Sophie Salamon and Paula V. Álvarez.

Cruz García is a Puerto Rican Architect, Artist, Author and Theorist who graduated in 2008 from the Universidad de Puerto Rico with a Master Degree in Architecture. In 2008 he co-founded WAI Architecture Think Tank as a workshop for architectural intelligentsia, and the art collective Garcia Frankowski. He is co-founding director of Beijing based Intelligentsia Gallery. Currently he is Hyde Chair of Excellence at the College of Architecture at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, and former Visiting Teaching Fellow at The School of Architecture at Taliesin (former Frank Lloyd Wright School of Architecture).

Nathalie Frankowski is a French Architect, Artist, Author and Poet who graduated in 2008 from the department of Architecture, Art and Philosophy at the École Nationale Supérieure d’Architecture de Paris La Villette with a Diplome d’État d’Architecture option research. Her final project “It Feels Like Home: Chez-soi entre nature et densité” received the special mention from the jury. In 2008 she co-founded WAI Architecture Think Tank as a workshop for architectural intelligentsia, and the art collective Garcia Frankowski.She is co-founding director of Beijing based Intelligentsia Gallery. Currently she is Hyde Chair of Excellence at the College of Architecture at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, and former Visiting Teaching Fellow at The School of Architecture at Taliesin (former Frank Lloyd Wright School of Architecture).