 |
In this installation pieces of clothing are hung from support lines
wired for sound. Shifting air currents buffet the garments, and their
movements tug on the lines to produce an uneasy chorus of groans and
cracks which emanate from a pair of audio speakers attached to panes
of glass in a set of street-level windows. To best hear the piece, a
visitor must lean their head against the window, thus enacting a combination
of the terms "ear to the ground" and "nose to the glass."
Situated in a building now closed to the public due to earthquake risk,
the piece overlooks San Francisco's Civic Center Plaza, a campground
for transients bordered by government buildings. Within these site conditions
of geologic peril and social neglect, the piece refers to the twin hazards
of public opinion and seismic activity in a three-strikes, fault-lined
California. An allegory for natural and human-made tempests, Groundswell
is an articulation of public and private consciousness in the face of
forces over which we have no control.
|
