Mark Bell, Cell Tower #2 (2023)

Mark Bell  
Cell Tower #2  
2023  
oil on board  
6 x 8 inches
 
 
Some notes on my cell tower paintings. 
 
A few years ago I began to notice how ubiquitous cell towers were becoming. They crept up on us slowly, then all of a sudden they were everywhere. Now I can't remember a time when they didn't dot the landscape with such frequency. For the most part our infrastructure is hidden under the city. No one knows where the garbage goes or where our water comes from, things just magically appear and disappear. Which makes these 100 foot steel towers all the more extraordinary; they rise up from the landscape like old growth trees only to show us the messy inner workings of our communication systems. There's nothing particularly pretty about these structures, their forms are completely determined by their function. They should command our attention like monoliths from the future, instead cell towers have become so common we barely notice them.  
 
I still haven't decided if these towers are beautiful or ugly, but they are clearly the great monuments of our time.
 
 
 
Biography of Mark Crofton Bell
 
Toronto-based artist Mark Crofton Bell has exhibited his paintings and wall works across Canada in various artist-run centres and public galleries including solo shows at The Art Gallery of Ontario, Cambridge Galleries, and Mercer Union. His current solo exhibition,The Mom Project, at The RiverBrink Museum in Niagara-on-the-Lake runs until January 27, 2024. 
 
He studied at the Ontario College of Art and Design as an undergraduate and received his MA from Chelsea College of Art in London, UK.
 
Bell is represented in Toronto by General Hardware Contemporary.