In symbolic language, the stairs have an ambivalent meaning.
The stairs can be climbed or descended.
A proverb says, ‘ The world is a stairway: in life there’s ups and downs ‘.
What fascinates me about the staircase is the fact that it’s an immobile structure whose function is to promote movement. The staircase is an architectural representation of dynamism. Its geometric shape is simple, the maximum of functionality.
Over the centuries, the most famous architects transformed the stairs into works of art. In its realisation, the staircase often takes the shape of a spiral, another symbol of eternal movement.
THE ESCHER GAZE
M.Escher represented the stair as the essential element of an infinite spiral in his engravings.
His characters spend their lives passing from one environment to another, imprisoned in a long sequence of infinite stairs, in a geometrically harmonic reality.
It’s no coincidence that the artistic movements of Cubism, Pointillism and Vorticism were born in the early ‘900, which inextricably linked their names to geometry and mathematics.
Even abstract art, however, has its own precise geometric balance, where the eye of the beholder rests on creating his personal view.
HITCHCOCK LOVED STAIRS TOO
The spiral and the stairs are the key elements of the final scene of the famous film by Alfred Hitchcock entitled (not surprisingly) ‘Vertigo’.
The title refers to vertigo the protagonist has from a severe accident. But a closer reading of the events suggests that Judy’s character is also the centre of a spiral that wraps around itself, formed by her alter egos, Madeleine and Carlotta.
SURPRISE YOURSELF
Material reality is a fantastic and kaleidoscopic geometric symphony.
So take your time up or down the stairs.
If you want to have information on the dimensions, print supports, editions and prices of this image, click on the button below.