Metropoli + Mythopoli

“The utopias presented by Richard England in this book, with his alluring and specular cities, reveal a figurative necessity of his: to represent the unrepresentable by every possible means. So here we have fragments or entire urban nuclei like brains, intricate spirals of context and allusive viewpoints in which not only are the references real, but where the very towns, landscapes and views allude to an uncertain world of stillness and peacemaking. And if many designs appear captivating, it is only to recall us to the writer in this sacred space, like wise citizens and frequenters of urban remnants that evoke often medieval landscapes. There is something ancestral in this flurry of views, as if the flows of the world, the winds, currents and tumultuous agitation, came together in the mind of the author, who translates them into signs, writing styles and graphemes that have all the flavour of electrifying nostalgia for the past and the present. These winding coils are interrupted only by the size of the page which, naturally, limits the field of action, but broadens the imagery. The utopias presented here are somewhat domestic and cheerful; they go beyond the conformism of former utopias that sought to be predictive and were sometimes authoritarian, to become a sincere proposal for finding happiness”.
(Marcello Sestito)