When I first read the project brief and the intention of the project to create a work that identifies an aspect of London that I want to explore more, I instantly thought of the works of German Expressionists in the years between the two World Wars where Berlin was a growing industrial city. Many of these artists such Kirchner and Grosz went to the war front and came back extremely disillusioned. Feeling like Berlin was becoming a cold, moral-less city, they portrayed grotesque, crude citizens such as drunkards and prostitutes and Berlin as an ugly, heartless metropolis. I also thought of the 1927 movie Metropolis, in which a utopian/dystopian metropolis was ever-expanding yet class separated with the builders maintaining the city and living underground while the architects and creators lived in the expansive buildings they designed. The city was depicted almost like a breathing monster, with a “heart”.
I’ve always thought that as the interconnectedness of a city grows with increasing urbanization, the close contact of the people increases with a paradoxical growth of apathy towards one another. We are constantly surrounded by people that we ignore or even are bothered by if they somehow intrude in our days. I also felt the cyclical pattern in the city but in a way of how a human body works, with different organs and cells playing different roles that ultimately sustains the body. Different parts of London seem to have different cultures yet together they create the image of London. Furthermore, the way the city is structured and connected daily, through transportation such as tube lines and buses, is static–it follows the same routes every day, playing the same role every day. The only thing that changes are the people utilizing these modes, yet even then many follow the same daily routine- work commutes, grocery shopping, etc.
I felt this cold detachment to such a bustling and growing city such as how the Expressionist artists felt of their city that quickly industrialized.
Street Scene, Georg Grosz 
Berlin années 30, Georg Grosz 
Metropolis, Georg Grosz 
Metropolis film 
Berlin Street, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner 
The Funeral, Georg Grosz 
Berlin Street Scene, Georg Grosz
Jessica Yang 