Fine Art Magazine Blog: Capitalism, but make it Art; Development, but make it Satire

Saturday, February 28, 2026

Capitalism, but make it Art; Development, but make it Satire

Two weeks into his ARTS 14C Special Project residency, Lorel Hill is building a company.

Not a real one.

A fake one.

But also…kind of real.

Lorel is a sculptor who makes mini dioramas — intricate miniature landscapes inspired by what he calls “degenerate places”: post-industrial lots, under-highway forests, abandoned buildings at the edge of cities.

The kinds of spaces where foxes, bats, graffiti artists, teenagers, and runoff water all coexist.

The kinds of spaces that feel more alive than a manicured state park.

Lorel Hill, Danger, Large Rats

48 in x 36 in x 18 in, 2025

His practice has long been about the collision of infrastructure and wilderness — from canoeing the polluted Hackensack River to exploring abandoned buildings in Berlin during the pandemic.

Last year, he recreated sites around the Meadowlands — liminal zones that have resisted development for centuries — imagining mutant rats, state task forces, poison barrels, and collapsing infrastructure co-existing within the landscape.

Now, in his Special Project residency, the work has shifted.

Instead of just observing these “degenerate spaces,” Lorel is asking:

What would it look like to intervene?

Lorel Hill's Sketchbook

Enter PoND Ventures LLC — short for Productivity of Natural Degeneration — a fictional development company headquartered inside the largest mini diorama he’s ever built. The site is inspired by a real boarded-up industrial building in Jersey City’s Communipaw neighborhood, wedged between luxury condos and empty lots.

In Lorel’s version, the building becomes part community orchard, part swimming pond, part ecological reclamation hub. The top floors? Corporate headquarters.

But here’s the twist:

Even a “good” company, operating inside our economy, has to answer to the laws of the market.

So PoND is both hopeful and unsettling. It proposes real ecological repair while satirizing the fact that any redevelopment effort is trapped inside market logic. Can you heal land and build community if you still have investors to answer to?

Letterhead from Lorel's Special Project Application

To push the idea further, Lorel is expanding beyond sculpture. He’s designing a wearable “field uniform” for PoND employees (himself included), blending hiking gear, urban fashion, and recycled materials.

He’ll perform as a company rep during ARTS 14C's Open Studio events — pitching PoND’s first product line: urban enhancement pills.

Think gas-station supplement marketing, but for ecological adaptation.

Capsules that grow climbing nails.

Skunk balm to evade surveillance.

Buoyancy boosts for polluted water.

Lorel Hill, Dream Mound

27 in x 30 in x 20 in, 2025

It’s funny. It’s absurd. It’s a little grifty.

And it asks a real question:

Can you fix a broken landscape using the same systems that broke it?

Come visit PoND's headquarters on March 15th, at 157B 1st St, along with the other artists in our Spring 2026 Special Project cohort. If you want to keep up with Lorel's practice, you can find updates on his website.

See you next week!

The Team at 14C

Want to become a Project 14C resident? Four applications are currently open: 12-month, Special Project, Teacher Residency, and our Semiquinticennial Fabric + Textile Residency.

Application + Info