Babina’s Architale: Architectural Art Telling Fairy-Tales!

Yes, it’s art meets architecture meets literary fiction in Federico Babina’s ‘Architale’ series! The depiction of fairy-tales takes on an architectural avatar in his set of 17 illustrations. Each illustration is of a structure that depicts, represents and narrates the story it is dedicated to, be it Little Red Riding Hood, Snow White or Alladin. As Babina puts it, “The idea is to use architecture and its shapes to take part in the relate of stories, transforming the buildings into ‘narrative objects.’”

Having always described himself as an ‘Artistect’, Federico practices an art form that uses architectural forms to paint his pictures. His uniquely stylised art has depicted varying aspects ranging from rooms and spaces to authors, architects, sculpture and even music. He has most interestingly represented in his illustration series called ‘Archiplan’, the typical planning styles of different famous architects. This latest series, ‘Architale’, appears to be the most bemusing though, where the observer is led through building forms that tell again, the cherished tales of childhood fantasy.

As observers ‘listen to’ these narratives, they can find a red hooded boxy built form raised above a moonlit forest, little red riding hood waiting aside to traverse it to the top where a shadowy wolf awaits her. The houses of the three little pigs are all lined up – made of straw, sticks and bricks – are being eyed by the cunning wolf down below. Robin Hood’s house is atop a silhouetted tree with an arrow shaped canopy and the princess from The Princess and the Pea can be seen above a many layered arrangement with a pea like globule jutting in between. Lying Pinocchio’s house itself is long nosed and the needle that put Sleeping Beauty to sleep pierces right through her pink castle. 

Cinderella’s world is bathed in pink while she leaves the pumpkin shaped ball room, leaving her slipper on the stairs as the prince follows her down them. There’s Peter Pan, Wizard of Oz, Hansel and Gretel, and Mary Poppins too, all assigned different fun built forms, reflecting the use of different building materials and colour schemes, too. The actual characters are merely tiny silhouettes that could be easily overlooked without really missing the storyline.

Seeing the entire collection is a delight, where the artist has displayed all building varieties from cottages to castles, tree houses to futuristic structures, confectionary décor to laboratory looks, against different landscapes and at different times of the day. Curiously notable is the aspect of all the structures being raised from the ground on stilts, pillars and trees, to multiple storeys which can be reached via stairs, ladders and even a convoluted upward pipe in the case of Alice in Wonderland instead of the downward tunnel through which she falls!

The structures in Babina’s illustrations bridge the gap between fantasy and reality, between past and future, and take us through an internal world where precisely the same is reflected – a dimming of boundaries between imaginary and real worlds!!