Project Two: Room and Narrative

A Woman in the Sun (1961) by Edward Hopper 

When I first viewed this painting there were three elements that spoke to me most:

High healed shoes: corporate society, banal, restricted

Beside the naked woman, as the only evidence of her previous attire, the shoes seem to suggest the idea of stripping away from society; breaking away and searching for sense of individuality.

Hills: tranquility, isolation, solitude

Light from an unseen window: duality, limbo

It is unclear whether the painting is set during dawn or sunset, creating a sense of duality, or even a middle ground.  Is it the beginning or is it the end?

Such ideas eventually led to my narrative:

A place to remember for a solitary socialite,

void of any memory of her previous life.

From this narrative I derived an objective for the women's room.  I wanted to create a space that would help the woman remember, a place to facilitate her longing for knowledge.  To acquire such knowledge, to perhaps trigger her memory, the ideal space for her would be a library.  

This library would not be divided into certain genres, nor would it have a specific route, it would be a space meant for wandering around with one pause at the centre.   A reading room bathed by light and almost completely enclosed. 

The walls will look like pages from a series of opened books, flicked open to enclose a space, light will filter into the shelves in random strips as if focusing on certain books during certain times of the day.  

The woman 

will feel lost in these rooms 

but not agitated 

until finally she acquires the 

knowledge she is after.