missing the boat (since 1880)
kozo paper, linen thread, indigo dye, archival tape, graphite
2019 - 2020
This piece is inspired by a graph* from NASA illustrating the sea level rise in millimeters since the beginning of such record-keeping, around 1870 and includes data through 2013. This particular graph is derived from coastal tide gauge data. According to NASA, the “data shown are latest available, given time needed to allow for processing.”
Illustrated here by hundreds of tiny, delicate, origami paper boats, strung together by flax thread, and dyed in the various blues of indigo. As the sea level rises, so too does the intensity of blue. Each subsequent dip in the dye bath makes the boats more vulnerable to destruction, an apt metaphor for our increasing vulnerability.
*https://climate.nasa.gov/vital-signs/sea-level/
missing the boat (twelve years left)
cyanotype on muslin, cotton thread
2019 - 2020
250 fabric boats, exposed in the winter sun, unfolded and sewn together.
One boat for each millimeter the sea level has risen since record-keeping began.
Each boat connected to the next, creating a sail to harness climate momentum, together.
Or, disconnected, the water in which we all will drown.
12 boats intact. One for each year we have left to turn this boat around...