API 21931656 Levelland, TX 2012

This aerial photograph of Levelland, Texas, by Mishka Henner, reveals something about the land and our relationship to it. At first glance, it’s a relatively muted palette, mostly browns and greys, but with a distinctive vertical line breaking the space. I’m thinking about Henner hovering above, looking down, almost like a painter staring at a canvas. There’s something about the act of choosing what to frame, what to focus on, that echoes the decisions a painter makes. It makes you wonder what they were thinking about when they made it? How did the artist construct this bird’s eye view? That vertical line, it’s like a brushstroke, bisecting the earth itself. What does it mean to make marks on the land? To extract resources? To leave traces? It resonates with the work of other artists exploring landscape and intervention. Each artwork becomes a place for conversation, a dialogue between artists, time, and perspectives.