As a contraction, Neosaka is a quite fitting title: A futuristic megacity of potentially Japanese architecture with an immense stream of bright neon light flowing through the urban canyons. Away from the skyscrapers, seen from on high, the city lies in the darkness of night – eerie and menacing, but also enticing. The England-based 3D artist and photographer Emilis Baltrusaitis is an expert in such utopian scenes undoubtedly inspired by cinema and film.
Whether Blade Runner or a blockbuster in the best Hollywood tradition, the digitally designed and detail-rich scenes in Baltrusaitis’s pictures amaze the viewer by their similarity to cinematic predecessors and their simultaneous development of each particular genre. His digital neo-construction makes an inexplicably lively impression, like a painting by Alberto Pasini that has suddenly come to life, with figures from an Oriental market sauntering through the image, talking and calmly gesturing.
At the same time, there is a delirious mixing of epochs. Antiquity meets aeronautics in an exciting combination as floating taxis glide through a dystopian Istanbul fog. Proportions are liberally turned on their head, viewers can zoom in and out as they wish, and some parts of the city are even hanging upside down. Baltrusaitis’s worlds have their own laws of physics and aesthetics. Daytime is truly characterised by a glistening light, while the night is filled with a foggy but fundamentally mysterious, diffuse light.
Stephan Reisner
