CityWood Artwork

Hubert Roguski's CityWood Artwork presents a masterfully executed laser-cut wooden relief depicting an intricate urban cartographic study, where the warm honey-toned birch plywood creates a figure-ground relationship of extraordinary complexity through the interplay of raised landmass forms against the recessed negative spaces representing waterways. The compositional architecture follows an organic asymmetrical balance, with the elongated central peninsula serving as the dominant visual anchor, its dense grid pattern of streets creating a rhythmic textural field that draws the eye through countless pathways of visual exploration. The chromatic palette operates within a restrained analogous harmony of natural wood tones, ranging from pale cream approximating Naples yellow in the background layer to warm raw sienna and golden ochre in the topmost carved elements, with subtle value gradations emerging from the physical depth of the layered construction creating natural shadows in burnt umber tones. The lighting conditions reveal a soft, diffused illumination from the upper left quadrant, casting gentle shadows beneath each raised element that enhance the three-dimensional quality and create a topographic reading of the urban landscape. Spatial construction operates through actual physical depth rather than illusionistic perspective, with multiple laminated layers establishing a literal foreground-to-background progression that transforms two-dimensional cartographic information into sculptural relief. The textural quality presents a fascinating dialogue between the smooth, precision-cut edges of each street and block element against the natural wood grain visible throughout, creating both tactile and optical texture simultaneously. Edge behavior demonstrates remarkable crispness from the laser-cutting process while the organic wood grain provides softer visual transitions across broader surfaces. Stylistically, this work occupies a compelling intersection between contemporary digital fabrication aesthetics, traditional woodcraft heritage, and cartographic visualization traditions, suggesting affinities with constructivist geometric precision while maintaining the warmth and organic presence of handcraft traditions. The atmospheric resonance evokes contemplative meditation on urban form, human settlement patterns, and the abstract beauty discoverable within the organized complexity of metropolitan infrastructure, inviting sustained visual exploration of the countless individual elements that collectively compose the metropolitan whole.

CityWood is a wooden map artwork that presents a city as a three dimensional object. City streets, water and landscape are represented by separate wooden layers, and the layers create depth. Each layer of fine quality plywood is cut with laser technology, polished for a smooth surface and assembled by hand. The layers are set in a wooden frame that measures 450 mm in width, 450 mm in height and 30 mm in depth. The artwork can hang on a wall or stand on a desk. The natural grain of the wood makes each map different.