Chromed Columns Abu Dhabi City is an artist’s book in which I focus on an architectural detail in the urban environment in which I live and work. These are chrome-mirrored columns that are ubiquitous in downtown Abu Dhabi, but also characterize the urban landscapes of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) beyond. In everyday perception, the chrome-mirrored columns on the facades of buildings remain inconspicuous, even virtually invisible; only when isolated thematically do they come into consideration as significant elements of the urban environment, which they absorb like convex mirrors.
The photographic documentation of my urban environment is an integral part of my artistic practice. I often develop sculptural works from my observations. In Chromed Columns Abu Dhabi, I reverse this relationship: the columns in the urban space of Abu Dhabi are architectural details, but I isolate them photographically and thematically as elements that have sculptural potential. I have selected 51 photographs for this publication. These are presented as a series of full-page illustrations. Further contexts for viewing the photographs are provided by an introductory text by myself and an essay by architect and urbanism researcher George Katodrytis.