Anatomy of Omission

Year | 2025

Medium | Charcoal on paper

Size | 15.5 W x 10.5 H in

Additional Details | “Anatomy of Omission” is a drawing of an elephant I saw on the roof of our building, which once had a huge fountain; after it cracked, everyone ignored it because fixing it was hard. Years later, when we moved, I went back up. The roof was bare, but the fountain’s footprint was still visible in the corner. The edited-out zone felt like a real city “elephant in the room.” In my drawing, I imagined ambiguous forms on a plain rooftop, so that the ordinary and the dislocated share a single frame. I’m asking how cities decide what to maintain and what gets treated as clutter; the composition keeps both without smoothing over either.