Sea Songs 2022​

SEA SONGS
Date: 2022

Created for “Swept Away: Love Letter to a Surrogate”
Curated by Warren Neidich
Guild Hall Off-Site
East Hampton, NY
October 30, 2022

This collage depicts the Sea Songs installation [link to SS on Installations page] I created on East Hampton’s Main Beach. The work plays on the fragile beauty of the coastline and the ocean, as well as our plunder of the precious natural world. Damaged snow fencing, used to shore up the dunes against erosion, is shaped in a spiral, forming a labyrinth-like pilgrimage to the center. Along the fence are slips of dissolving paper with quotes from great writers about the sea, written in invisible ink. Viewers are invited to choose a slip, read its quote and write their own thoughts with invisible ink pens. When they arrive at the center of the spiral, they can toss their papers into a tub of sea water and watch them dissolve. A soundtrack of great songs, from Bob Dylan to The Beatles, Jimmie Cliff to Lady Gaga, about the sea adds to the chorus of written voices, strumming our hearts.

States of Mind: Greed​

States of Mind: Greed
Date: 1992

One of a series of collages that depict the contents (furniture, clothes, books, kitchen appliances, etc.) of a typical one-room apartment are arranged and rearranged to depict different states of mind. Greed contrasts a pileup of stuff with the true American ideal: the Statue of Liberty.

Carrier Pigeons: Blankets​

Carrier Pigeons: Blankets
Date: 1992

For many homeless people, blankets are a necessity for warmth and protection. CARRIER PIGEONS: BLANKETS creates blankets to be displayed for the taking on abandoned buildings and fences, sidewalks and subway stations—anyplace homeless people frequent. The blankets are printed with dates and zip codes of their origin. As their new owners migrate across the city or from city to city, forced to leave one location after another,s the blankets carry these record of their travels.

Uniforms/Blankets (Eastern State Penitentiary)​

Uniforms/Blankets (Eastern State Penitentiary).
Date: 1993.

Commissioned by the Eastern State Penitentiary, this installation was designed for a historic prison in Philadelphia. One of the first “panopticon” prisons, the building positioned a guard in the center, with long corridors radiating out in all directions. The uniforms and blankets (all that each prisoner was given) comment on this vision of prisoners as faceless objects subject to full-time surveillance.

Cobblestones​

Cobblestones
Date: 1991
18×24 inches
Collage on Paper

This collage questions the wisdom of New York City’s decision in the early 1990s to rip up the blacktop streets in Soho and replace them with cobblestones. Intended to restore this chic neighborhood to a picturesque moment in the past, this costly initiative created streets that were treacherous to walk on, hell on car shock absorbers, and noisy (as trucks rumbled over the uneven surfaces).

Eastern State Pententiary: Fossils​

Eastern State Penitentiary: Fossils
Date: 1993

Commissioned by the Eastern State Penitentiary, this installation addresses the nation’s first solitary-confinement prison. Conceived by the Quakers as an attempt to isolate prisoners from each other’s negative influences, this scheme essentially buried prisoners alive in small, windowless rooms with only a mail-slot through which they received their meals. The dates represent one prisoner’s sentence; “larceny” his possible crime.

Recycling Site: Newspapers​

Recycling Site: Newspapers
Date: 1991

This installation turns a gallery into a recycling site for the duration of the exhibition. Newspapers pile up daily in alarming quantities, reminding each of us how all of our little wasteful habits add up to global disaster.

Beachtowels (The Nature Conservancy prototypes)​

Beachtowels
Date: 2013
18×24 inches
Collage on Paper

Renderings of beach towel designs for The Nature Conservancy annual picnic (see Design page for final product) that graphically address local environmental challenges:

Abstracted sand fencing grapha coastal erosion and high-water marks
Per-capita water consumption seasonally in the Hamptons resort communities
Harmful red algae subsuming pristine blue waters
Increase in toxic chemicals in our groundwater

Watermarks/Shorelines (The Nature Conservancy proposal)​

Watermarks/Shorelines
Date: 2013
16×20 inches
Collage on Paper

The Long Island Chapter of The Nature Conservancy is actively addressing the alarming changes to the region’s shorelines in the wake of Superstorm Sandy—a traumatic event that was a wakeup call to anyone who still doubts that extreme weather is part of our future—and our present! The seemingly fixed borders between land and sea, land and bays, and even land and ponds have proven malleable and mutable.

Sited on the long brick wall and curbside land of TNC’s East Hampton headquarters, this installation addresses the two equally doomed strategies for arresting coastal erosion:

1. The brick wall stands for the “hard” solution of  erecting rigid seawalls, barriers that eventually erode beaches altogether.
2. The sand dunes and twisted and broken sand fence represent the “soft” solution of repeatedly replenishing the dunes, buying time at great effort and cost.

Rising Tide​

Rising Tide
18×24 inches
Collage on Paper

Commissioned by The Boston Harbor Association for its 2015 gala, Rising Tide was inspired by the mission, accomplishments, and challenges faced by this amazing organization. The fences refer to the many miles of public walkways TBHA created along Boston’s historic waterfront. The buildings are Boston’s sky line, the backdrop of these open spaces. The rising “waves” of silver/gray are the rising tides that, due to rising sea levels, now threaten much of Boston’s waterfront and coastal neighborhoods. The three fences and three sky lines “recede” as the water encroaches upon more and more land over time.

Where the Wild Things​

Where the Wild Things
18×24 inches
Collage on Paper

The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation recently created a list of 185 birds, fish, and animals that may well be extinct soon unless we take active steps to address this tragic scenario. Many of these species were once common on the East End of Long Island.  This artwork depicts a few of our threatened local friends in their once pristine habitat: the North Atlantic right whale, the loggerhead turtle, the leatherback sea turtle, bay scallops, oysters, and hard clams, and the roseate tern. Imagine this landscape without these extraordinary creatures.

Original collage not available for sale. Sold at the fundraising auction for the Group for the East End.

Beach Umbrellas

Sun Umbrellas
Date: 2013
18×24 inches
Collage on Paper

Umbrellas with striped wedge patterns are common sights on beaches and at outdoor cafes, where they provide shade from harsh sunlight. Here I propose to replace the standard stripes with pie charts that depict data concerning:

• The amount of radiation penetrating our ozone-depleted atmosphere
• Seasonal variations in dry/drought weather at each location
• Historic rises in seasonal temperatures
• Beach erosion due to global warming/sea-level rise
• Impact of warming ocean waters on fish and selfish populations

In other words, any issues that vacationers should care about as they savor the delights of a day at the beach!

Watermarks/Shorelines(The Parrish Art Museum Proposal)

Watermarks/Shorelines
Date: 2012
18×24 inches
Collage on Paper

Superstorm Sandy was a wakeup call to anyone who still doubts that extreme weather is part of our future—and our present! Damage to the East End of Long Island brought home the peril of living framed by the waters we so love and cherish. The seemingly fixed borders between land and sea, land and bays, and even land and ponds have proven malleable and mutable.

This installation treats the Parrish Art Museum’s exterior wall and grounds as canvases on which to trace the wavelike contours of our shifting shorelines. The museum’s south wall becomes both a timeline and a graph, tracing the high-water marks for each seaside village from the museum’s founding in the 1800s to the present. The colorless stains will fade over time—just as do our memories of traumatic events.

On the vast open field in front of the museum, “waves” of grasses advance from the highway perimeter toward the museum, like waves lapping up the shore. The grasses will be planted in successive bands over time, so that they creep closer and closer to the museum.