Paris London Hong Kong is pleased to invite you toFurther, a series of work by Edmund Chia.

When you’re taking off, like, in a rocket, at Cape Canaveral, there must be a rearview mirror where you see the launch site, the big paved surface and outbuildings, the space center campus, all surrounded by wetlands and water. It’s not really organized in shapes that are definitely “human”; it’s all odd shapes, specific, that aren’t so earthly. They’re shapes that arise because of utility, so they belong to a universal language of functionality. A mile up you see the suburbs; the grids that are very human, and the curvy planned developments that are recently human. The swirly wetlands, keys, coastline, are very earthly, but don’t matter to you at this moment, they’re just the elements of Earth tumbling over each other, settling in the place of least resistance while all the plants adapt to their surroundings and the little animals just do their thing amongst the plants. I mean, it’s fun to identify nature shapes from above, especially something so recognizable like Florida. But we didn’t construct that shape, and it’s not really your main focus; it’s not the mark of your species on your planet. You’re going off into space towards other planets, maybe to look for signs of life, or just clues left behind.

The patterns we make on the planet are pretty cool, but those are usually parts of cities, and cities are always changing shapes and expanding. From space, cities are…you’d definitely recognize Venice, which is a nature/human hybrid shape, but it’s not a symbol you could sit and draw.  Washington D.C. is a clear shape, but it only exists on political maps, and not from space. Walled cities are fabulous shapes, and forts, also, usually spiky, with even edges and angles, which can be qualities of good symbols. Symbols that can be seen from space, you know?

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