2009-2011 > 27 Views of Shangri-La

This is a series of woodburnings of various places including old roadside motels, nudist colonies, trailer parks, XXX-theaters, luxury resorts, all that share the name "Shangri-La". I depict them engulfed in fire and smoke to connote the dilution and corruption of the mythic ideal, as its name has come to be associated with modern places that are false utopias. Yet, they continue to conjure ideas of wanderlust, the exotic unknown, and a promise of escapism in its many forms. The title, 27 Views of Shangri-La, is an allusion to Hokusai's Thirty-Six Views of Mt. Fuji which was a series in which Hokusai obsessively depicted Mt. Fuji, revealing Mt. Fuji as his own personal Shangri-La.