Rackstraw Downes: Texas Hills | "Exclusive" | Art21

[RACKSTRAW DOWNES: TEXAS HILLS]

People are very hypocritical, you know--

they like cosmetics.

If the place is all cleaned up,

and there's no sign of any functionalism going on here,

that's what they like.

They don't want to see the line that brings power to their refrigerator,

even though they get up in the morning and drink orange juice out of it.

[LAUGHS]

And my job is to provoke this hypocrisy

and tease this hypocrisy

and try to get some sense into their heads. [LAUGHS]

I'm in interested in landscape where people have acted upon it.

I grew up in a landscape like that.

England is very lived upon.

All of Europe really is, you know.

George Orwell said, "When you take a step somewhere in Europe,

you're probably treading on ten dead people."

[LAUGHS]

And it is like that!

And, I think that's okay.

The American romance with the untouched landscape is sort of foreign to me--

it's never exactly hit me, particularly.

And I like the landscape that has been modified--that's okay.

People aren't so bad.

They go in there and do these things,

and some of the things are rather wonderful,

and this is one of those places to me.

It's not in the middle of nowhere,

it's right here on the edge of town. [LAUGHS]

And you can see little bits of the town from here.

There's something funny about that juxtaposition that I like very much.

I find it very touching.

I also love the proximity of these towers.

The towers are enigmatic.

That white tower up there is such a wacky shape,

popping out of that mound.

And the cell tower is wonderful, too.

It's just so extraordinarily tall,

and those immense cables that hold it up, you know.

These things appeal to me.

And then I love the fact that the kids ride around on here in their ATVs.

The thought of somebody riding around on one of these machines like this,

with absolutely no rules and laws governing them,

and so forth and so on.

I think it's very wonderful.

I think it's a lovely bit of youth having its own good time, in its own way.

Taking the most dramatic little paths up there

so they'd be right on the crest--

always the path goes to the crest of the hill.

And I just find that all very delightful.

I like it.