Frank Gehry and Expressionism

Flying through the architecture history timeline, our class has now landed on expressionist postmodernism where unusual massing, distortion of forms and symbolism are encouraged to create emotional effect and convey multiple meanings. The new movement also plays the same idea of forms follow function (modernism) but in a different sense. This time, the eyes of the beholders are not the architects but ordinary people (e.g. The Big Duck building is designed to be in a duck shape following its purpose of a duck selling house).

Among the famous expressionist postmodern architects, one very unique figure ,who interested me the most, was Frank Gehry. Personally, his fish series are distinctive and notable in term of the invention of idea and belief. His buildings stand out from their surroundings and draw people's attention.

http://www.eikongraphia.com/?p=50

However, in some project like "the Fish dance restaurant in Kobe, Japan" the 'too fishy' shape of it makes it look nothing more than an enlarged version of a well carved sculpture. It is just one big fish or in another word, it is unique but not intriguing. When compared to modernist buildings, it seems to have less thought and maybe too well-defined. If possible, I would rather prefer the new peculiar idea and concern of functions of Frank Gehry but the more abstract and logical forms of modernism plus the ambiguous meanings with numerous ways of understandings from post modernism.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/culturemonster/2009/03/video-frank-geh.html

Above is another Gehry's fish called the Vila Olimpica (Barcelona,Spain). This installation appears to be more attracting than the restaurant. I like the idea of how the fish is abstracted and becomes more open to interpretation. The form is more expressive, emotionally movable as it is subjective for the architect and also to the eye of viewers and it would be nice if this fish can actually becomes a living space.

‘It was by accident that I got into the fish image,’ said Gehry. ‘[In the Eighties] my colleagues were starting to replay Greek temples. That was hot, everybody was re-doing the past. I said, y’know, “Greek temples are anthropomorphic. And three hundred million years before man was fish. If you wanna, if you gotta go back, if you’re insecure about going forward, dammit, go back three hundred million years. Why are you stopping at the Greeks?” So I started drawing fish in my sketchbook. and then I started to realize that there was something in it.’

-Frank Gehry