40 Days After the Storm, 2018

After Hurricane Harvey hit Houston, I started thinking about cycles...cycles in the weather, cycles in nature, and cycles in one’s lifetime. I thought about how a natural disaster can suddenly and unexpectedly interrupt the cycle of daily life and how recovery efforts quickly become integrated into our day to day routine. 40 Days After the Storm is not specifically about the Houston flood but a response to the disaster - a project that aims to poetically address the idea of aftermath and resilience.

The installation chronicles the days following Hurricane Harvey. Daily samples from the flood site (debris from homes, dead insects, fallen branches, even a lizard that drowned) were placed inside homemade pinhole cameras and left in my yard for 40 days – one specimen a day, one camera at a time.  During the extended exposure, the path of the rising and setting sun combined with watermarks from the rain become layered with shadowy objects that appear to be floating in water. Here, the microscopic world of an insect becomes entwined with the larger universe in the sky. Each specimen represents a small moment or story that points to loss, survival, or recovery. Collectively, these seemingly insignificant objects become part of a bigger picture — a reference to how the ordinary everyday can be shaped by an epic event such as a flood or natural disaster.

Field notes are an integral part of this installation which are written directly on the wall in pencil. The notes record each specimen and various events that occurred during the course of the project - two more hurricanes, earthquakes in Mexico, birthdays that passed by uncelebrated, a cancer scare, and the death of my cat. The information functions as a daily log, helping to frame the work around time, personal experience, and current events.

images are printed as 13x18” panels, grid dimensions variable