Stack Collapse / Systems Forming, LivLab Watershed Project Space, Sylva, NC, 2022
Plaster, fiber reactive dye, flood debris / broken hoses, yellow, orange, red zip ties, yellow landscaping twine
Stack Collapse is a resistance to mass production, capitalism, and consumerism as driving forces of climate crisis through handiwork, care, and repair. It is a coping mechanism for a catastrophic climate event through miniaturization, and a recognition of toxic nostalgia. It is a historical record of my region through trash, and a contemplation of global economics and cultural norms. It is a lot of things.
In August 2021, a flash flood devasted the horse farm I was a hand on. As we worked to clear and clean up the property (after emergency evacuating all animals) I collected plastics and other manmade detritus that came from upriver. It was once recommended to discard your household appliances and garbage into ravines and rivers in Appalachia, and the flood unearthed decades of this history. This trash, inset into many of the 1,382 HO scale (model train size) shipping containers I cast over a year, reflects the estimated number of shipping containers that fall into the sea annually.
In the months leading up to the flood I was collecting broken garden hoses from my community via social media while thinking about water and its impacts. Systems Forming, made in a week, after completing Stack Collapse, echoes the speed at which climate emergencies can happen. The colors of the zip ties correspond to NOAA’s categorization of storms that impact the Southeastern United States.