Urban Layers
Ira Hoffecker

On Wednesday, February 19th, in the first ´aceNITE of the year 2020, artist in residence Ira Hoffecker presented her work Urban Layers.

Urban Layers (by Ira Hoffecker)

Urban Layers is a series of paintings with loose compositional associations to urban places through time. The work translates cities’ atmospheres through shapes, colors and marks that articulate the physicality, the vibrancy of consciously being in city complexes. I employed geometric shapes inherent in architecture and city maps, utilized color to portray distinctive city experiences. Many layers of abstracted elements of architecture provide the basis of my compositional language.

The work references urban structures, building frameworks, facades, silhouettes, in general. Places are overlaid with multiple histories, layers of paint cover and obscure but each coat is also informed by the previous layer. I am interested in how different societies transform and change city spaces over the course of the centuries. My work examines the relationships between people and cities by responding to constant change, reconstruction and restoration in the urban landscape. Historical, political and social impact and its effects on city identity through physical deviations of decay, a rebuild or destruction, covering or erasure, or reveal takes place concurrently and over time.

My research includes reading books about history, memory and memorials, books about architecture. My photographic study that represent city configurations enhance my perception of the identities of places. Walks through different cities in various neighborhoods allowed informed responses and association with my architecture, map and photographic studies. I am interested in memory and in studying how people commemorate history, therefore, in Buenos Aires I have specifically looked at memorials and its architecture as my source material. The work contains elements of the Parque De La Memoria, Plaza de Mayo, the memorial site of the secret detention camp El Vesubio and urban structures of the city of Buenos Aires.