Bremner Benedict
Glen Canyon
From the series Gridlines
2003
Pigment print
30 x 30 inches
Courtesy of the artist
© Bremner Benedict

Engineering wonders in their own right, these transmission towers dwarf our human scale with their lattices of steel connected by wires. Though it seems impossible that such a vast number of super-size structures, ranging across our hills and valleys and marshes and deserts, enabling all our modern conveniences, could be ignored, people often try. By concentrating on their shapes, Bremner Benedict encourages our seeing them anew, not as unsightly but as interesting sculptural objects, created at the junction of form and function.

Despite their industrial origins, these towers share an affinity with human and animal forms, with their firm stances and upraised arms. Seeing human characteristics in animals or things—anthropomorphizing them—is related to our capacity to interpret the world and is a trait with roots in early childhood. Could the artist be drawing a parallel between the towers and the human body to tap into this human way of seeing the world as a way to get us to think about the towers in a new way? Does the dark, cloudy sky in this picture affect the way you view these structures?