Unzipped
Abandoned oil derricks are a scourge on the landscape making large tracts of land unusable. Previous owners just left them sitting there when the profit went out of the business. Until recently there has been no requirement to clean up the mess left behind. It is estimated that there are 71,000 of these orphaned oil wells in Alberta alone. Shortly after I painted this I came across a gallery installation in Alberta where they had pictures of some of these oil wells displayed on gallery walls. Visitors could walk around and look at the pictures and were invited to fill out applications to “adopt” an abandoned oil well. They were then interviewed as prospective ‘owners’. A clever way to bring some attention to this issue. Unzipped is my reaction to cutting into the land and leaving the scar unhealed.