Pipelines
In these drawings, paintings and wall installations I obsessively render a continuous line to create complex, intertwined, tubular forms. As I draw, I consider the effect of how transmitting fluids and gases, along with pressure and gravity would influence these imagined forms. The forms are layered and loosely follow aspects of linear perspective to become networks that reference the vast and intricate transportation, processing and refining systems of oil, natural gas and water as seen in our industrial landscape.
In 2012, I visited two retired Off-Shore Drilling Rigs in Texas and Louisiana and spent time exploring oil refining areas along the Gulf Coast. Since this trip, I have begun to depict the tubular, pipeline forms interacting and forming a literal landscape in my drawings. I present the tubular structures as growing and altering landscapes; even becoming their own living entities enmeshed with the landscape. The earth is depicted as being used up, barely being able to support the oil infrastructures. In these drawings I evoke the earth as becoming sickly, having tumors and growths, and becoming cancerous. The work addresses the ongoing shifting of power between mankind and the earth and brings up questions about the carrying capacity of the earth’s natural resources in relation to the human species.
