API 21932470 Slaughter, TX 2012

Mishka Henner made this print, API 21932470 Slaughter, TX, and well, I guess you could say the image sort of paints itself, right? Think of it like an abstract expressionist painting, if the earth was the canvas, and the sky was the painter, using satellite cameras as brushes. I mean, imagine what Henner was thinking when he found this shot! It’s like he stumbled upon a ready-made painting out there in Slaughter, Texas. There's a stark contrast between the industrial intrusion and the natural landscape, a single pump standing against a neutral ground, the network of desolate tracks. It's almost beautiful, right? This piece feels part of a conversation with artists like Ed Ruscha who find beauty in the banal, or maybe even the Bechers with their grids of industrial forms. Artists are always talking to each other, riffing off each other. It makes you wonder how many accidental masterpieces are out there, waiting to be framed.