Piece of the Week: ‘City’ by Yiannisun

Redbubble artist Yiannisun has a portfolio filled with psychedelic-urban-triphop-streetscapes, which are guaranteed to make your pupils dilate. Yiannisun’s artwork “City” comes from an imploded planet littered with the remnants of mankind’s self destruction. Featuring leaky pipes and sludgy city waste, “City” is overflowing with imaginative zest.

The peachy pastel tones make for an inviting piece, but it’s the details in the pencil work that demand your attention. In a stroke of quiet brilliance Yiannisun has committed to his narrativ; notice the discarded jetpack backpack on the right, or the way in which books are “read” by plugging them into a helmet. This is the stuff of a future where technology looks like it’s advanced and developed as quickly as it’s discarded.

It’s refreshing to see an artwork that injects youth and teens hangin’ out after giant technological, humanitarian, and environmental changes. It’s an inviting look at how we will still connect as friends when all the buildings around us are shattered husks.

Or perhaps this artwork speaks loudest as a demonstration of the fun illustration and design can bring both artist and viewer — the notion that joy still underpins why we make things and who we make them for. Either way, there is a delightful story Yinnisun has formed from pen to screen, captured in a simple moments between friends.

“City” is composed beautifully, the spiral staircases and carefully considered vertical key points in the piece make it a work that unfolds (and folds upwards) for your eye. The composition mirrors the tone of the scene it depicts, wonky spirals are fitting in a wonky futuristic world where things aren’t holding together so well.

For it’s charming palette and imaginative attention to detail, “City” by Yiannisun is our Piece of the Week and you can purchase it as a print, phone case, or more here.