From the same sources of inspiration for my tire-rubber work, I make these canvas prints from the actual landscape of the streets. By carefully timing my work on the street with safe pauses in traffic flow, I place sheets of canvas over specific pavement locations where I have observed interesting traffic patterns and street textures. The more familiar I have become watching both traffic flow and its interaction with pavement textures, the better I am able to gauge the visual potential in various sites, although unpredictability plays an excitingly significant role. Sometimes the violence of the traffic rips the canvas to shreds; other times fascinating patterns emerge.

 By taking imprints of our fossil-fuel culture that are left on a specific spot on the surface of our planet during a short time period, then placing them in a frame on a wall, I see the impact of our daily lives a bit differently. Unlike graffiti artists or those like Cristo who add pigments or materials to a landscape, this work captures marks not usually seen or noted that would have otherwise been added to the landscape, and removes them to another context. I am able to take advantage of both the traffic imprints and digital technology to produce limited edition, hygienically clean Giclée prints for framed final images. I also adjust from the larger scale of the streets to a more human-scaled sizing of the finished prints that better relates to indoor landscapes.

Catherine Lee, Owner of Crossing Art Gallery in NY wrote about the canvas prints, shown for the first time earlier in 2014 at Hiers’ solo exhibition at her gallery:

“Hiers has chosen this exhibition to unveil his newest creative direction, unique “Landscape Prints.” In these unusual works, each piece is made through interaction between the artist and the motion of vehicles that pass over the canvas, acquiring carbon imprints of constant human activity on one small part of the earth’s surface, over just a few hours of time. Often done surreptitiously during the night like street art, this work is parallel but moves at opposite directions to that of graffiti street artists. Rather than add markings to an urban landscape, or like Christo who adds fabric to a landscape, the Landscape Prints instead steal or capture markings on canvas that would have been added to a street or pavement, and remove them to be seen in another context.”

The founder of the Museum of Contemporary Art Beijing, Qin Feng contributed this for the exhibition catalog concerning the same work:

“His inventive “Landscape Prints” take these explorations further, making use of traffic to imprint earth pigments into canvas. The scope of modern culture and the machinery of daily life become the press in which these mono-prints are made, revealing marks that are not normally seen or noted. Taking impressions from beneath our feet and placing them on the walls forces the viewer to consider vehicular activity in a different way and, likewise, to ponder the process of art-making itself.”