Hypnagogic City
Hypnagogia is the experience of the transitional state from wakefulness to sleep. Mental phenomena that occur during this "threshold consciousness" phase include lucid thought, lucid dreaming, hallucinations, and sleep paralysis.
- Wikipedia
Starting with a publicly available digital model of Toronto, Mathew Borrett has crafted a haunting tableau of the city's civic center as might exist in a parallel universe. We glimpse a present day through a new lense: one constructed of an accretion of imagined structures and the decay of old ones. The prevalent theme is the relationship between the built environment and nature. Taking a maximalist approach, the viewer is presented with a hyper-detailed scene that invites repeated exploration.
Mathew Borrett is a Toronto-based artist and illustrator who has worked in the visual effects industry for TV and film. Recently he has been exploring ways to blend his work in traditional drawing with digital techniques. He graduated from the illustration program from the Ontario College of Art & Design in 1998.