I just finished up the first batch of what will likely be many pencil drawings of Chicago rooftop scenes. I have a huge stack of printmaking paper scrap that I found leftover from undergrad (which I finished 5 years ago now, yow!), and it seemed perfect to use them for refined preliminary sketches for larger works I’d like to do. I’ve been interested in the rooftop views I’ve seen since moving to the city for a few reasons. For one, they are directly related to the work I was already doing, which investigated how we create artificial, controlled environments for ourselves to live in, and the character that these environments can have. But I am also drawn to them aesthetically because there is such a makeshift quality to so many of the pipes and air ducts on Chicago buildings. I’m sure these things are usually the result of retrofitting old buildings with new equipment, but it’s visually fascinating how all these ducts and contraptions are jerry-rigged together in order to fulfill an important function within the carefully controlled environment inside the building. Viewed on their own, they are essentially minimalist art installations, and in my drawings I try to contextualize them as such. It’s not even always readily apparent what these devices and pipes do, they are just forms situated on a flat plane that invite the eye for investigation. There is also the fact that these fixtures are usually something hidden from view. Normally building designers go to great lengths to hide rooftop fixtures from street view, but in a city like Chicago you see nothing but rooftops everywhere you turn. It’s like catching a glimpse of the inner workings of a larger-functioning unit, and I’m probably going to figure out how to work these aspects of my new surroundings into my work over the next few years.
