Bremner Benedict
Two Grey Hills
From the series Gridlines
2008
Pigment print
30 x 30 inches
Courtesy of the artist
© Bremner Benedict

Bremner Benedict’s series Gridlines encompasses a startling variety of power towers, also known in the United States as electricity pylons and transmission towers. Though their function is ordinary, in some of Benedict’s pictures they seem to be gargantuan alien beings marching in formation across the desert or standing sentinel alongside highways. The size and numbers of these towers suggest a race of human-designed beasts on the verge of rampaging out of control. The artist doesn’t begrudge these structures their power over us. Instead she invites us to acknowledge their central role in our lives and either accept them or make other choices. To make her point, she makes sure that the towers dominate her compositions and command our attention as the primary subject of the pictures.