Landscapes of Aerial Invention

Artist Natalie Czech's Blattschnitte, from 2002, presents us with aerial views of cluttered landscapes – which Czech has since combined, sutured, and overlain with other views of cluttered landscapes.


The results are hyperdense – yet weirdly believable: we see suburban sprawl, post-industrial voids and infrastructural wastelands, all of which take on the texture of paintings.


These are just five examples; nearly two dozen more can be found on Natalie Czech's own website.


For obvious reasons, Czech's work resembles Alan Berger's Drosscape: Wasting Land in Urban America, an aerial look at wrecking yards, freeway interchanges, and toxic sites throughout the United States. Even so, some of her images have a geometric perfection that belies the tangles of actual sprawl; others are surely nothing if not made with acrylic paint; yet others look like entirely digital fabrications.
So whether I've correctly understood her creative process or not, the images are extraordinary.

(With thanks to Bryan Finoki and Moon River).