Dark Empire, a twenty-five-minute shot of the Empire State Building at sunset during the August blackout, crystallizes the earnestness of Pilson`s position: Unlike the glittering tower that Warhol captured in Empire, which its maker described as "Flash Gordon riding into space," Pilson`s lonely, dark silhouette expresses only existential isolation and New York`s vulnerability to the grid. With his sensitivity to the intimacy that exists between New York and its inhabitants, Pilson is a model witness to the city`s fluctuations and rebirth.