Flash Point

About This Project

Birmingham Southern College, Durbin Gallery, Birmingham, Alabama, October 4 – 30, 2019

Disruptive forces can be found everywhere whether the scope of one’s search is global, societal, or personal. They are as present in the human-constructed environments, over which we believe we have control, as they are within the natural world. When a disruptive force occurs within a closed system, the effects ripple outwards with positive and negative ramifications that range from subtle to catastrophic. When does this disturbance become something that can no longer be ignored? At what point does it flash?

In this work an amorphous force expands within a house-like structure built with the stud walls that support our dwellings. This home, however, is illogical and unsustainable. Its walls tumble into disarray at which point the chaos, the source of the rough beast we have created, erupts. The consequences of this disruption can no longer be contained; they refuse to be denied. Even so, will we rise and react?

When presented with disruptions how do we respond? Do we resign? Do we rationalize, turn our backs, look away? Do resistance to and fear of change guide us to hold things steady painting the unacceptable as reasonable? Do we mend, make right, fix? Do we embrace change and seek positive outcomes?

In Flash Point I ask the viewers of this work, will we choose to be defined the problems that we have actively created for our world or the strength with which we face and battle them? Will we simply hold them at bay or act aggressively together to better our world’s future?