Telling the Disaster

2008

string, ink on paper boats, 4″ x 4″

Disaster stories from participants were written and released in waterways around the Spring Green, WI area. Each story consisted of a paper raft drawn with scattered words from the story and a mass of knotted thread. As the rafts were sent down the waterway, the ink of the drawing blurred and the raft eventually tipped and allowed the thread mass to sink. These acts were documented on video and come together in a final video piece utilizing animation, time-lapse footage and sound. This piece was inspired by the disastrous floods that affected Spring Green and the parallels of emotional recovery generated from large-scale disasters and the smaller, more personal disasters we overcome on a day to day basis—from failing to make breakfast properly to adjustments to new environments to physical and emotional abuse.