Somewhere people lived

Oil on canvas, 8" x 10", 2024

Hazen "Bis" Ellwood (They/Them), BA, Multidisciplinary Studies, Urban Studies Focus, 1st Year

Artwork Description: A human-scaled place where mysteries outnumber inhabitants.

Artist's Bio: Hazen; or Bis (both are cool), is a multimedia artist, activist, and (un)certified AuDHD-haver born, raised, and living in Calgary, Alberta.

Their nickname, Bis, comes from the element "Bismuth," tucked into a corner of the periodic table — when melted and cooled, the non-descript grey transition metal constructs intricate and iridescent crystalline formations, gleaming every hue of the rainbow from its curly staircases.

Bis hopes to invite the sublime from the esoteric and atomic—to appreciate the details left unexplored in our interactions with each other, the objects and structures we consume, and the land we inhabit. 

Artist's statement: In the past year I've become fascinated with the circular relationship between our social constructs and our physical structures. Devoid of modern technology, economy, zoning, building codes, medicine; we humans gathered in patterns only tangentially related to those we experience today.

This painting depicts such a primitive urban environment, inspired by Mediterranean architecture; a blocky human-scaled hallway enveloped by dwellings at equilibrium between chaos and precision.

Embellished with curved entrances, carvings, and abstract portals through which to appreciate the dramatic blue sky. Like many areas of urban origin, this is a place whose users have vanished and so whose users remain forever enshrouded in mystery.

Sun-bleached and preserved into modernity for a humanity whose complex needs it can no longer provide, we may look upon this place with conjecture or confusion. All we know for sure is that it was Somewhere people lived. 

Artist's contact info: bismsus@gmail.com