City's Suburb 

Kazuo Nakamura made this drawing, City's Suburb, with ink on paper. He worked with the most elemental means: a blank surface, a dark line. This simple contrast allowed Nakamura to investigate complex ideas about space and structure. The drawing is made up of many small lines and rectangles, a kind of abstract topography. But the way these shapes cluster suggests something more: the regimented yet chaotic layout of a suburban development. Nakamura’s marks, though simple, have an expressive quality. Each reflects an individual decision, a moment of careful placement. It’s easy to imagine him, pen in hand, working away at this composition, one mark at a time. In this way, City’s Suburb reminds us that even the most seemingly mechanical environments are the result of countless individual actions, and that even a simple drawing can capture a complex social reality.