cover image Hypnos

Hypnos

Rizzoli, Scolari, Massimo Scolari. Rizzoli International Publications, $21 (94pp) ISBN 978-0-8478-0791-8

Italian architect and painter Scolari creates hallucinatory architectural plans and paintings that critique modernist representation while establishing their own design and spatial conundrums. Scolari is fascinated by the role of architecture as a symbolic machine, concealing beneath its casings intricate workingsmechanical, social and perceptualthat reveal the architectural ""object'' in its most basic but truthful state. The text is bilingual and includes a mystifying exercise in metaphysical writing by Rella. Scolari's own discussion is both enigmatic and illuminating. The analytical/symbolic nature of his haunting, beautiful work is epitomized in the artist's own words as an ``enigma that expresses precision.'' (May)