Craig Quarry with Surrounding Vignettes 1973

Malcolm Rice made this quirky, detailed drawing called Craig Quarry with Surrounding Vignettes in 1978. The monochromatic palette and cross-hatched details reminds me of an architectural rendering or etching. I imagine Rice hunched over his drafting table, obsessively building up layer after layer of tiny precise marks with a very fine pen. I’m really intrigued by the juxtaposition of images here—is it a quarry? Is it a stage? And what is it with all those heads floating around the central image? The heads in hardhats hanging around the quarry remind me of those rowdy construction workers from a Warner Bros cartoon. And is that some kind of bird-powered water feature in the foreground? The whole thing has this kind of playful, surreal quality that makes me think of the work of artists like Paul Klee or even some of the weirder stuff from the Chicago Imagists. It feels like Rice is inviting us into his own private world, full of unexpected connections and strange juxtapositions.