“They were constructed with no consideration of so-called beauty and serve their functionality alone.” –Hilla Becher

The aim of my work is to recontextualize elements of our utilities infrastructure using the aesthetics of scientific illustrations, specifically those of Victorian Era botanical illustrations.

            This old aesthetic represents a time before science and art became more neatly delineated and mutually exclusive. Objects of study were routinely drawn so as to record and describe their forms and to put them into categories. This process of drawing the object of study forces me to intimately familiarize myself with its form, its parts, and the similarities and differences between it and its fellow objects. In this way, to draw the object and to study it are the same thing. The process of both drawing and then printing the finished works takes time and attention; to the viewer, this time and attention translates as a declaration of importance. In this way, these otherwise ignored utilitarian structures take on a significance worthy of pondering or appreciating.

            One of the physical manifestations of our infrastructure that I am currently focusing on is electrical power transmission. Utility poles or transmission pylons seem to frequently be interlopers. They are usually described as being in the way of something else, blocking a view, cluttering a landscape, creating overhead hazards… being always both necessary and unwanted. This is a strange view of them considering the importance we place upon the electricity they provide us with. These electrical transmission systems stand beside drainage structures, miles of pipes moving fresh water, sewage, oil & gas, communication networks, transportation links, and innumerable other parts of our modern infrastructure. Just as the environment affected our evolution into the human animal, we now set about creating and affecting an artificial environment, an ecosystem of utilities that support not just our survival, but our modern standard of life.           

In the natural world, the architecture of an organism such as a plant serves only functionality, leaf structures are determined by the constraints of light and wind, flowers designed only with the purpose of attracting pollinators; it is we who came along later and ascribed the concept of beauty to them. There is a parallel between nature’s functional constructs and the elements of our infrastructure. Both serve their functionality alone, but only one have we culturally come to appreciate.

            The core of my current practice is understanding the world in which I live, and the angle from which I approach studying the utilities around me reflects this. The transmission pylons I draw are on a single electrical line that originates at Lake Lynn Dam and terminates at West Virginia University’s Creative Arts Center. The subject of utilities is somewhat detached and inherently analytical, but the specifics of the utilities I choose to study are personally connected to me: these are the transmission pylons that provide power to my studio where I work every day. My investigation of them is also personal. These objects where not searched for online, but found and observed in person which influences the way I study them. I am not an electrical engineer or lineman, my vocabulary and interaction with the subject reflects this. I am an explorer of a world we often ignore because we consider it already explored.