Land Made by Water, Bodies Made of Water, Shimmering with Agitation
2025
Installation size variable, 4 panels, each 36” wide x ~105” high
130 years of NOAA temperature data for the Missouri River Basin, the Upper Mississippi River Basin, the Great Lakes Basin, and the Ohio River Basin, linen, plant and insect dyes, plastic fishing line
All photos by Colin Conces courtesy of Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts
Comprised of annual average temperature for the Ohio River, Upper Mississippi River, Missouri River, and Great Lakes basins, color-coded as strands of plant- and insect-dyed linen warp threads. This materialization of rising temperatures is held together with petrochemical-derived fishing line to create wave-like patterns that shimmer like water. The combination of materials and data traces connections between climate crisis, extraction, and the accumulation of toxic plastics in our bodies and ecosystems. As visitors move through the gallery, they view each other through this semi-transparent textile that connects extreme temperatures to their impact on the human body.