What If?

Metropolis
Alexis Cornwell
02/11/2016

The Stenberg Brothers

The brothers Vladimir Stenberg (1899-1983) and Georgii Stenberg (1900-1933) created works in
a variety of forms, working as constructive sculptors as well as theatre designers and architects.
They also created graphic design posters for the cinema in Soviet Russia which are their most
remembered works. Their posters were produced in the 1920's and 1930's and features a distinct
use of perspective as well as colour and geometry that helped to portray movement in the image.
Vladimir Stenberg has said that 'When we made posters for movies, everything was in motion
because in films, everything moves.
While they were studying at the Free State Art Studios there was a State Purchasing Commission
which bought works from artists. The brothers would sign their work as either G. Stenberg or V.
Stenberg even though they worked together on all their works as the commission would only buy
one artists work. They would create both paintings and three-dimensional works as the latter
would be bought for more. When they were filling in the forms for the commission they would
write that they were artists even though they were still studying. This was because the work they
created for the commission was created independently from their studies.
Georgii Stenberg died from a motorbike accident in 1933. After the death of his brother Vladimir
continued to work as an artist, organising the May Day decorations for Moscows Red Square in
1947.

Influence Map

Travelogue
Upon entering Stenberg you are greeted with colour, the dark reds and strong yellows alongside dull
blues and bright greens. The city seems split with an outer section that features smaller houses, blocky,
geometric in shape and rounded at the corners, the inner cities buildings are taller, imposing and birdlike, towering over the cities inhabitants as they walk underneath. The paths twist and turn as you walk
down them, curling in on themselves and then out around the houses, spiralling to the centre of the city.
The houses change the closer to the centre you get, the smaller, blockier buildings in the outer portions of
the city leading into the more bird-like, tall buildings in the centre of the city.
The citys inner buildings are tall and imposing, towering high above the buildings in the outer city and
requiring the people to crane their heads back to see the top, they are supported by beams and poles that
carry the weight of the topmost parts. The buildings are made of metals like steel and aluminium as well
as cement, painted in bold colours and striped patterns that accentuate the angles the architecture
provides. Windows stretch high and wide, sometimes covering entire walls yet other times remaining
sparse across the building.
The city of Stenberg is one that is in motion, reaching out and stretching across spaces. The inhabitants
too are caught in a momentum, moving constantly yet completely content. There is a sense of business
and of organised chaos, of structure and reason underlined with playfulness and adventure.
The further out from the centre of the city you get, the more plants can be seen. Bushes and flowers
planted in front of peoples houses, gardens filled with greenery and trees are all around. In the inner city
there is less to be seen, a potted plant here and there, some trees in a park long abandoned. The people
hardly seem to notice, except for when the go to the outskirts and see the greenery thats missing from
the streets they walk.
At the city centre is a space used for markets and lines with shops, words on signs decorating buildings
to guide people where they want to go. The area gets decorated during holidays. On one side of the space
lies the theatre and on the other lies the college with its glass windows, low to ground yet wider than the
buildings around it.

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