Alternative Histories: Atelier Tomas Dirrix & Boris de Beijer on Otto Schönthal

Atelier Tomas Dirrix, Otto Scönthal’s sketch for a cemetery church, 2018. Epoxy, pigments, oils, 120 × 120 × 160 mm.
Otto Schönthal (1878–1961), design for a cemetery church, 1901. Pencil, blue ink and wash and coloured washes on paper mounted on card, 205 × 160 mm. DMC 1911.1.

A few coloured washes present the frail idea for a cemetery church. The drawing, made by Otto Schontal, hardly seems to make a suggestion for a building. A blue and green blur with coloured stains loosely defines a sphere in which scale nor structure seems important. Following our interest in the exploration and making of an architecture of unplanned and frail character, the model presents the church as a nebulous object defined by gradients of blurs, tones and transparencies.

– Tomas Dirrix and Boris De Beijer