'Arcosanti in Arizona is a very intentional, utopian modernist community. It was built in the 1970s in the model of modernism, but it’s falling apart because it’s on top of...
"Arcosanti in Arizona is a very intentional, utopian modernist community. It was built in the 1970s in the model of modernism, but it’s falling apart because it’s on top of a mesa and is exposed to the elements. If you go twenty miles up the road there is a site called Montezuma’s castle, which is not an Aztec site at all, but an indigenous cliff dwelling made out of earth and brick, it's beautiful. It was built into the side of the cliff, so it’s protected from the elements and was able to sustain habitat. It was built in a such way that would maybe be imagined as a modernist utopia. Those two things that are so close together are the perfect example of what I am thinking about in my paintings. Modernist ideals are not invented, they are highly influenced by colonial trips. Even the aesthetic of just a square building seems connected to me." - Carlos Rosales-Silva