Scott Tulay relies on his background in architecture when tending to his art (or the other way around). His abstract architectural drawings are a way for him to investigate the ambiguity of space. “As an architect, I meticulously create drawings to reveal and describe a building’s design and construction,” he writes on his website. “In my art studio, I am able to break from all these conventions and push the gravitational and spatial boundaries of these spaces I imagine.”
A haunting, almost ghosting, sensation pervades his work. Whether inspired by built form or natural context, his art is constructed by an armature of light. Light, or what looks like atmosphere or fog, is engaged in either defining space or dematerializing the landscape or architectural elements depicted.
This treatment of light, combined with an unclear relationship of the viewer’s place in relation to the ground plane, creates a spatial disconnect with an ambiguity of depth and motion. A feeling of disorientation might creep in when looking at his black and white illustrations. In some drawings, the viewer appears to be floating and is looking both up and down at the same time.
“My daughters, who are eight and five, consistently complain that my drawings are ‘too scary,'” admitted Tulay in an interview with Mass Cultural Council. “They will ask me ‘Why can’t you draw something nice, with color, like with a rainbow?’ Once in a while, however, I’ll do a drawing, and they’ll tilt their heads to the side and say ‘Not bad, Dad.’ This scares me.”
Enter his disorienting space (but do so at your own risk!):
