Installation, 13′ x 6′ x 6′. Garbage, wall text, single channel video loop, 2:25, 2005.
A pile of debris rises up like a monument- plastics, a shopping cart, timbers- the detritus of our modern society, all collected from city parks in Pittsburgh, PA. In the midst of the waste pile is a disassembled television. Oddly still functioning, it shows a manipulated video loop of the 1936 Pittsburgh flood. Ambient sounds emanate from the piece, reminiscent of being underwater. Demarcated on the wall behind is an unidentified numerical index suggesting flood water height? Police lineups? Overpopulation? Nearly every culture has in the world has a flood myth, indicating it’s profound affect on the human psyche. The title is in part from Description of a City Shower by Jonathon Swift, a satirical verse using the flood as a social equalizer. Homily for Swelling Kennels engages the intertwined dynamics and relationships of the natural environment to social structures.
