TESSALLATORS (VIBERS)

MURAL RELIEF

Tessallators (Vibers) is a mural relief made for the gable wall at the Becco building in Kristian Augusts gate 11 in Oslo, as part of the building´s renovation in 2020-2021. 

Entra and Byantikvaren had chosen the wall as the site for a permanent decoration, given the historic precedence for painted decorations and ads on the gable walls of buildings from this time.

Following this historical cue, I proposed making a simple relief in two colors in the manner of common Oslo façade decorations in lime plaster, whilst arguing for the conservation benefits of such a relief, versus the suggested wall painting format.

Each of the figures were designed by following a simple technique for making organic yet tessellating shapes (the ability for a shape to be repeated in a pattern without spaces or overlaps – like a tile), by manipulating a square or other tessellating shape via cutting out sections and moving them diagonally to its other side.

Thus, the sum of the area remains the same, as only the line defining its boundary changes. As such, the shapes become self-referential doodles, or exploded squares, where what is removed is also added, in a zero-sum game of sorts.

Surrounding the tessellating shapes are round dots whose diminishing size is made to conjure the effect of exaggerated perspective.

After I produced a 1:1 sized template in plywood, the wall was executed by Haandverkene A/S. Great council was given by Murbyen Oslo, Fellesverkstedet and Betongstudio A/S.