Nelson architect David Dobie presents unique exhibit at Capitol Theatre

When computerized architectural drawing came along in the 1980s, Nelson designer David Dobie stored on working with paper and pencil.

He ongoing this act of resistance while creating hundreds of homes, structures, and renovations in Nelson till his retirement in 2021.

A new exhibit, entitled Shifting Design, in which Dobie explores this pre-computer system apply, runs at the Capitol Theatre Jan. 3 to 10 with a gala and artist talk on Jan. 7.

In this paper-and-pencil practice, the initial drawing is created, then a sheet of translucent paper is overlain, on to which newer and improved thoughts are drawn, to be overlain all over again and refined again.

Dobie says no designer works by using this approach any more.

“This is about hand-eye co-ordination,” he says. “Putting brain to paper as a result of our bodies and our movements and our perceptions.”

The translucent panels in the show stand in the Capitol lobby, in the foyer earlier mentioned the theatre seats, down each and every aisle of the theatre, and on the phase. The panels are backlit, but the lighting is not static. It has a sluggish rhythm or pulse that variations the overall look of the panels as the viewer walks earlier them down the theatre aisle.

“I desired to use all this paper to generate some thing sculptural,” Dobie claimed. “Big sufficient to emphasize scale, a composition that a person could stroll all over or even through.”

The show is not a chronicle of all the structures Dobie has created. It is far more random and abstract than that.

“In this subject, everybody who retires desires to do a portfolio of all the great operate they did,” he explained. “But all of the items that obtained developed are out there, you can go glance at them.”

David Dobie ongoing using paper and pencil for his layout function though most architects and designers moved to computerized style. Picture: Invoice Metcalfe

This show is an inventive installation about the design and style system. The various drawings on each panel may possibly have very little to do with each and every other and we may possibly not even see the completed drawing.

Dobie took the hundreds of drawings in the show from his archives – he has saved all those translucent layers for 40 several years – but in the exhibit they are organized neither chronologically nor in a linear manner.

Dobie suggests he wishes to display that his design and style suggestions had been not limited to one challenge but have still left their imprint in multiple drawings around the decades.

“There is a progression of tips and compatibilities that produce and mature more than time,” he says.

David Dobie’s show is not a chronicle of life time of work, but an exploration of the design and style approach. Photo: Invoice Metcalfe

All the things is short term

Dobie states the show displays the non permanent mother nature of all the things we do, including the development of houses, which essentially have incredibly brief life spans.

“You can poke your finger by means of this,” he suggests of the translucent paper on his panels. “We establish all this things hoping to create solidity and genuinely we are here for a short time, and substantially of what we do will get trashed, thrown away, rejected soon after a really small period of time.”

He claims we are destroying our surroundings so speedily and so considerably that we are getting shut to having almost nothing still left to help save.

Which is why this show is “temporary, light, and fragile,” Dobie suggests.

Shifting Design and style is open at the Capitol Theatre Jan. 3 to 10 concerning 11 a.m. and 3 p.m. with admission by donation.

Tickets to the Jan. 7 gala night are $10 and can be purchased at the theatre. The event will element a effectiveness by a trio of Nelson musicians: Juno Award-nominated vocalist Melody Diachun, bassist Doug Stephenson, and Juno Award-successful guitarist Mike Rud.

David Dobie created hundreds of residences, structures, and renovations in Nelson until eventually his retirement in 2021. Picture: Bill Metcalfe