Water Towers

Water Towers depicts the utilitarian structures common across urban and semi-urban Southeast Asia, where elevated cisterns supply water to buildings lacking reliable pressure infrastructure. In Kiggell's hands, the industrial geometry of these towers — cylindrical tanks on skeletal metal legs — becomes material for exploring the visual language of contemporary urban life in the region. The sharp, repetitive forms of the structures contrast with the soft, absorbent quality of the washi support and the water-based pigments of the mokuhanga process, a tension between industrial subject and traditional medium that is characteristic of Kiggell's practice. Figures in relation to the towers ground the architectural scale and situate these objects within lived, everyday environments.