Vertical Cities for My Children

Title – Vertical Cities for My Children
Medium – Acrylic on Canvas
Dimensions – 108cm by 123cm
Year – 2023

Development they said…

The beautiful greenery in the city is cut down! To make way for high rises of offices and flats! Concrete jungles!

I hear my palette knife on the canvas, my hand responding to my mind, creating a vertical city.

I walk within its rooms in my mind, seeking to connect with the mixed emotions of its dwellers. Of people living in concrete boxes half a kilometer in the air. These are Vertical Cities for my children!

But, is it Sustainable?

Corporations driving profits! Do they understand that we are ‘biophiles’ and that we have peculiar needs as such? Automated living spaces governed by the Internet of Things. Is that the solution?

Where will the little ones gather to play? Online? Will they ever experience the joy of reading together in a community library, peering over each other’s shoulders? Will they ever have the privilege of outdoor exercise and communal living we did? Connecting with nature and appreciating the therapy nature brings?

I paint on thinking of life in a concrete tower asking if profit will replace the humanity associated with hallowed living spaces compromising the future of others.