extra-rooted in the semblance of solid ground
Found foam dock floats, laminated Google Earth images, driftwood lumber, Bay water, Ziploc bags, hardware.
18x12x6 ft.
2016
Installed at SOMArts Gallery in San Francisco as part of the Murphy Cadogan Exhibition, curated by Kevin Chen
Within the San Francisco Bay, dock floats that once allowed humans to walk over water become drifting worlds for volunteer intertidal species. The foam surfaces are sculpted by their environment as wind and waves carve voids, and flotsam and driftwood impales. Over several months, I used digital resources to estimate the most probable caches of foam, bringing me to post-industrial pockets of the Bay's coastline as well as restricted and environmentally protected areas. Collecting these floats by canoe and foot, my journey mirrored that of the foam floats. This installation is an attempt to contrast the physical marks from the life of an object after its intended use with the detached experience of digital navigation, satellite imaging, and preservation of collected objects.