Kibera, Nairobi

One of a series of canvases based on the world's largest slums, the painting depicts Kibera, a suburb of Nairobi in Kenya, viewed in Google Earth from 2 1/4km above the city. Inspired by the writings of urban geographer Mike Davis, the series seeks to alight on the random nature of these improvised urban developments and how the most miserable human environments take on a strange beauty when viewed from above. Others in the series include a favela in Rio, a polytunnel city in Almeria, southern Spain, and Dharavi in Mumbai, India. A related series planned to follow this group of canvases will focus on the concept of 'plenty' and will include Kansas crop circles viewed from a similar distance above.