So I was sitting at my desk, minding my own business, when I clicked on the NY Times site and nearly choked on my pork roll. Thanks a lot, Stephen Wiltshire.
This 35 year-old Briton, the cause of my choking, happens to have autism. Yet, instead of being restricted by his ailment, Wiltshire spends his time rendering cityscapes entirely from memory. He is currently spending a residence at the Pratt Institute, rendering the New York skyline in front of the public, who are rightly captivated by the whole thing.
Wilshire’s extraordinary ability to etch entire cityscapes from memory is unsurpassed. The artistic skills of some Autistic people is well-known, such as with Gilles Trehin, the young Frenchman who designed an entire city within the confines of his own head. The difference with Wiltshire is the incredible accuracy of his photographic mind which enables him to replicate the detail of actual places from just one glance. The piece he is working on at Pratt Institute, for example, is the result of a single, 20-minute helicopter ride above Manhattan. He has also done similar things with cities as diverse as Tokyo, Madrid, Jerusalem and Hong Kong, amongst others. His works are large-scale, yet intimate. Detailed, yet cohesive. Simply remarkable.
His website seems to be haemoraging at all the attention. Much like my lunch, come to think of it.
