My boyfriend found this book in the Centre Canadien d’ Architecture bookstore after we went to see a small exhibit Harriet Russell had done there (more about that later). He was like- check this out- with a big smile on his face because he knew he had found me something amazing. South African artist Titus Matiyane makes these incredible detailed panoramas of cities. Every single building is drawn in, every tiny house, tons of tiny trees. The book has seven of these panoramas and you’ll be shocked looking at the last photo below because it shows how long and huge these panoramas are. There are some photos from an exhibition of his where the panoramas just wrap around the walls of the gallery- oh to see them in person- sigh. The colors he choses are so powerful- florescent orange for each tiny rooftop, a variety of green and orangy washes for the grass, ink for the lines. Then the titles of the cities are in block letters at the top of each drawing with their flag or some sort of information about the city. I can look at these drawings forever. There’s also two really interesting essays about Titus and how his fascination with the growth and transformation of cities around him led him to create these insane works. You can get a copy of this book here.

© Julia Rothman 2007