Artist Appropriation and Image Analysis

Image analysis: Yang Yongliang's "Untitled 4" from the series "Heavenly City"
The image "Untitled 4" is one among a series of digital conglomerates of photographs depicting fantastical structures in black and white. This particular image shows a vertical structure rising from an industrial landscape below, which is largely obscured by a haze that can be taken, from the context, to be smog.
The lower right corner of the image contains the only color- two red signature-like red stamps of Chinese calligraphy. Similar signatures can be found in traditional Chinese paintings, on which Yongliang draws heavily to create images.
Evidence of this influence can be found in the fantastical nature of the landscape in this image, which is nonetheless tied to reality in that it is a conglomeration of photographs. A closer look at the components of the tower reveals that it is comprised of objects of industrial construction, such as cranes and buildings shored up with scaffolding. From afar, these solid forms appear as delicate lines, mirroring the qualities of Chinese calligraphy, and tying the image further to traditional Chinese watercolor images. Similar ties can be found in the smog surrounding the tower and comprising part of the structure, as the amorphous matter resembles washes of watercolor found in Chinese painting.
Is there a hint of irony in the title of this series- "Heavenly City?" Certainly the first word that comes to mind upon viewing this image is not "celestial." Yongliang may be playing on the idea of urbanized China, or even the world, as a false paradise. In "Untitled 4," the viewer is presented with an unimaginable landscape that, despite its impossibility, appears more dystopian than it does Utopian. In the skies, there is smog instead of clouds. The building is comprised of objects of construction, rather than appearing sleek and modern. Even the tonal qualities (there is virtually no pure white in the image) suggest a less than ideal world.