City rooftops

My idea for this challenge came from images of city skyscrapers and rooftops when seen from above. It always struck me that rather than being flat, these roofs have many industrial looking structures and shapes on them. I also wanted to suggest that where the city ends, suburban areas from above also contain blurred notions of swimming pools, and housing complexes.

I used a plain white background and cut squares from a number of commercial and space-dyed fabrics, which I bonded on to about two-thirds of the background, in a random and sometimes overlapping way. I drew several part-squares and lines within the spaces between these squares and in the remaining third of the background (the suburbs), using ink and a cocktail stick. I wetted the some of the lines in the suburbs so that the ink would bleed and create smudged pools. I added a variety of beads and sequins to simulate the structures on top of the roofs, and added a few  hand-stitches. The quilting was done by machining around the ‘buildings’ in matching threads, before adding more squares on top of the suburbs and around the city blocks using a white cotton thread to give a more subtle square design.

Close up views:

Keywords:  city skyscrapers, rooftops when seen from above, beads and sequins, commercial and space-dyed fabric, square design,