other work from the 1980s
insufficient data fish, 1989
Analysis paralysis in litigation and environmental legislation. Commissioned by New York Department of Parks. Central Park Pond, NYC, 1989.
Steel & clipboards 15 X 5 X 14′
digging, 1985
Inspired by news articles regarding the appearance of mysterious wastes unearthed by chance (or rodents), happening in a lot nearby.
Steel, Paint, 23 X 27 X 3″
polytox park, 1983.
The discovery in the ’70s of a chemical dump secretly leaking under a housing subdivision in nearby Niagrara Falls, NY, marked my first awareness of environmental deception. The city had bought the land from Hooker Chemical Co for one dollar in the ’50s. After years of litigation the land was repurposed as “ArtPark,” 200 acres on the banks of the Niagara River Gorge.
While not fit for human habitation, the land was deemed clean enough for earthworks, theater and children’s activities. This got me thinking about the role art plays in creating cultural amnesia in times of war, political turmoil, and gentrification of cities.
Polytox Park was a simulated toxic waste sight I built in San Francisco’s mission district, a temporary work about killing ourselves while at play in our own waste. Commissioned in 1983 by New Langton Arts.
patentable future, 1985
Life is patented as property when a mouse is engineered to readily host human disease. Inspired by this I made a fish with its own specially designed oxygen tank for survival in eutrophic waters. The concept examines proposals for geo-engineering—or modifying the environment, instead of eliminating the source of the problem.
Welded steel& paint 1985 36 X 36 X 22″
gas orphans, 1984
A swarm of ants chews up the Union Carbide stock certificate. After the Bhopal India gas leak killed thousands of sleeping villagers with leaking methyl isocyanate pesticide gas, the company denied responsibility and eventually sold off divisions of its holdings to avoid financial liability.
Steel and paint, 1984, 30 X 17 X 6″
hire intelligence, 1980.
Commissioned for Dag Hammarskjold Plaza, NYC. A temporary winter installation adjacent to the UN about the irony of cold war politics.
Steel, Designcast, and paint, 8 X 11 X 11′