Wednesday, February 9, 2011

"Powerlines" by Layla Messkoub

Images reposted with permission of the artist. Learn more about Layla Messkoub and her art at her website, blog, or Etsy store.

I take it for granted that nature is beautiful. I think of blooming cherry trees, ocean waves lapping the coastline, and the variety of magnificent sunsets, and sigh with awe. What people make is always ugly by comparison, especially when what we make is primarily made to be functional. Especially when it involves technology. Taut wires instead of tendrils and vines, parallel poles instead of unpredictably curved trunks and branches. And yet, something about this order - straight lines, right angles - is comforting. Perhaps more importantly, this is where most of us live, in cities, where the natural landscape has been overthrown by our settlement. Our noise, air, and light pollution. Our distracting billboards advertising everything from corn chips to razer blades. Our miles upon miles of evenly spaced, mammoth poles fitted with metal coils and connected with crisscrosses of electrified wire. This is installation art on a massive scale. This is transformation. Transmutation. Transcendence. This is a different sort of blue sky.

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