Hurricane Lost

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Exhibit info: HURRICANE LOST, January 27, 2021 - April 4, 2021

Emerson Contemporary Media Art Gallery, Emerson College, Boston, MA

Reviews and Press (also at the bottom of this page)

About the projections:

I filmed and edited all the video used in the installation. The footage is of the ocean off the Atlantic and Antarctic coasts, with effects added, slowed down, and layered. The use of abstracted water-based imagery on the sculptural elements references how hurricanes gain their strength.

The footage is fastest in the center, on the spinning spiral and its two surrounding pieces. The imagery gradually slows and changes textures to shorter "cloud formations," as you approach the outer edges. At times, on the very outer edge, a bit of blue appears, as the "clouds" begin to "clear" on the edge of the storm.

About the soundscape:

The soundscape is not meant to recreate a storm. I asked Radio not to include any traditional rain or thunder sounds - I wanted the feeling of being up in the wind of the storm, not below it. Radio and I experimented with a range of machine and engine sounds because I wanted to reference industrialization's relation to the changing climate and worsening hurricanes (including a recording I made in my studio of a forklift driving freight across my ceiling). From Radio's mix of field recordings, synthesizers, and effects, I began to hear the creation of what I named, "the beast of the storm," and I liked it. Instead of fast and hectic, I wanted a slow tension that allowed listeners to feel an eerie foreboding and the pull of the space.

This project was partially funded by an Artists' Resource Trust Grant from the Berkshire Taconic Community Foundation.

The eight sculptural video forms in Hurricane Lost are based on the shapes of hurricane cloud walls, while their spatial layout mimics the circular wind patterns. If one were able to see the installation from a bird's-eye view, the hurricane forms would appear to be slicing through the architecture to form its spiral.

The installation spans the gallery's 1700 sq. ft. floor plan and rises toward the 20 ft. high ceilings. Two helical forms, which together create the 14 ft wide x 13 ft tall spiral eye, spin around visitors who choose to enter.

Materials: rear-projection fabric; aluminum tubing, rods, pipe; artist-designed and built 14' hexagram as the support structure for the hanging/spinning spiral; airplane wire and hanging hardware; motor; site-specific placement and video mapping by the artist.

The soundscape was created in collaboration with Radio Sloan.

Dimensions at longest points (H' x W'):

First room

Spiral: 14' diameter

         10’ 7" x 24’ (spiral part 1)

         12’ 3" x 10’ (spiral part 2)

         Spin 1 RPM, counter-clockwise

8' 6" x 16’ (above the main entry door)

8' x 13’ (from the first room to the second)

Second room

7' 6" x 12’ (first)

7' 6" x 12’ (center of space)

6’ x 15’ (back of space)

Small room

8’ x 13’

Behind the scenes:

Installation time-lapse video

Video preview also on: YouTube | Vimeo

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