Outside the Work: A Tasting of Hydrocarbons and Geological Time (Houston)

2014

Tasting/Participatory performance for 50 guests

Collaborators: Lucullan Foods

Hosted by Joseph Campana and Timothy Morton, with generous support from The Arts Initiatives Fund and The Humanities Research Center.

Presented by CENHS (Center for Energy & Environmental Research in the Human Sciences @ Rice)

This work is part of the project:

A dinner for 50, co-hosted by philosopher Timothy Morton and poet Joseph Campana, that explored the concept of Deep Time and the multiple million-years-long process of fossil fuel formation, embodied in a seven course meal. The guests were primarily from the academic and arts communities in Houston. The purpose was to field test the effect…

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The Petroleum Manga (book)

2014

Valerie Vogrin and Marina Zurkow, editors

Published by Punctum Books

https://punctumbooks.com/titles/petroleum-manga/
This work is part of the project:

The Petroleum Manga, first conceived of and rendered as 10-foot banners printed on Tyvek for gallery installation is now reproduced in book form. Originally, manga was used in Japanese to refer to whimsical drawings or picture books. Long before manga was a multi-billion-dollar-a-year comic book industry, there was Hokusai’s thirteen-volume manga, depicting everything from trees…

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Outside the Work: A Tasting of Hydrocarbons and Geological Time (Boston)

2013

Tasting/Participatory performance for 50 guests
808 Gallery Boston University

With Lucullan Foods and Michael Connor

Presented by the School of Visual Arts, in collaboration with Boston University’s Programs in Food and Wine.

This work is part of the project:

The French phrase hors d’ouevre literally means “outside of the work,” that is, outside the design of the meal. Petrochemicals infuse our foods, and while these byproducts of petroleum lie outside our designs on eating, they are intimately meshed with the foods we produce, transport and consume.You are invited to a multi-course tasting that invokes…

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The Petroleum Manga

2012

50 banners, book
Solvent ink on Tyvek
10 ‘ x 54”

This work is part of the project:

Originally, the Japanese word manga was used to refer to “whimsical drawings” or picture books. The Petroleum Manga, a “picture book” about oil, is inspired by Hokusai’s thirteen volume set of manga. It depicts everything from trees to demons, squirrels to shingles. Each Petroleum Manga banner represents items organized by a specific petrochemical: PET, PVC, HDPE, PMMA, polystyrene, polyurethane, ammonia,…

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Body Bags for Animals

2013

Tyvek, solvent ink, plastic regrind
Life-size
Unique

This work is part of the project:

All photos by John Berens

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HazMat Suits for Children

2012

Tychem® TK fabric, acrylic , Velcro, rubber, mannekin
Fabrication : Lara Grant
Tychem® TK fabric courtesy of DuPont(tm)
Approx 45” tall
Edition of 5 suits

This work is part of the project:

Dupont’s patented Tychem hazardous materials clean-up suits are used in petroleum industry disaster response to mitigate ecological disasters. These suits have been re-scaled to outfit them for children. These suits are sealed to prevent humans from entering them, thus assuring that no children are harmed in the process.

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Immortal Plastics

2012

Participatory performance

In collaboration with Sarah Rothberg

Premiered at New Museum IDEAS CITY

This work is part of the project:

Immortal Plastics (IP) Assessment Services is a performative, methodological procedure which determines the depth of participants’ relations with hydrocarbons and positions participating individuals on a timeline of plastic’s ancient past and indefinite future. 250 million years ago during the Permian Period, marine microorganisms died and accumulated in sediments on the floor of a vast saline…

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The Thirsty Bird

2012

Two-channel animation, black and white, silent
5 min,12 sec loop
Animation assistance: Lindsay Nordell
Edition of 5

This work is part of the project:

The movement of a pump jack (known colloquially as a “thirsty bird”), and a public water fountain are synchronized in a transitory dance. As the pump pulls oil upward, the water fountain spurts water. An array of archetypal individuals—cowboys and Indians, a father and his son, a county sheriff, a cow, a soldier, a girl…

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NeoGeo I-IV

2012

Single-channel animation, color, silent
Qucktime renders of Processing sketches, custom computers, speedrail, mirror
12 minutes each
Edition 1/5

This work is part of the project:

NeoGeo I-IV is a series of 12-minute Quicktime video captures of algorithmic, moving image work created using the software language Processing. The work visually represents the work of an oil drill as it penetrates through an infinite series of geological layers. The layers of sediment continually auto-generate based on pre-programmed parameters. The videos are mounted and hung…

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Hydrocarbons

2012

Single-channel animation, color, sound
2 min 32 sec loop
Edition of 5

This work is part of the project:

Hydrocarbon chains are the base material for all plastics. They know not what they become, they simply proliferate. Extracting and manipulating a clip from The Inside Story of Modern Gasoline, a 1946 industrial film, endless chains of anthropomorphized (and uncomfortably racialized) hydrocarbon molecules dance until they blot out the screen. Hydrocarbons are indeed dispassionately lively actors, taking…

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Mesocosm (Wink, Texas)

2012

Software-driven animation. 144-hour year-long cycle (never repeats).
Color, animation, sound
Format: Standalone software application on (intel) Mac with monitor / projection
Dimensions variable

Add’l animation: Michelle Mayer
Code Design: Veronique Brossier
Occasional Sound: Lem Jay Ignacio

Developed through a residency at Diverseworks, Houston, Texas

This work is part of the project:

Spring, Summer, Fall, and WinterFour archival pigment prints on Crane MuseoDimensions 26″ x 44″Available as individual prints, or as a set. Mesocosm (Wink, Texas) is part of an ongoing series of animated landscapes that develop and change over time in response to software-driven data inputs. The title is drawn from the field of environmental science…

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Necrocracy (project overview)

2012-2014

Project consisting of videos, dinners, software, sculptures, public art engagements, printed matter

Diverseworks gallery text by John Pluecker

Commissioned by Diversweworks, Houston Texas
Supported by a 2011 John F Simon Guggenheim Fellowship

This work is part of the project:

Necrocracy is a meditation on geology, time, nature and petrochemical production. First exhibited at Diverseworks in Houston, Texas, Necrocracy featured newly commissioned video animation, drawing and sculpture. Questioning the division between the natural and the human inherited from the Romantic era, the works navigate between human manufacturing of petroleum-based products, ecology, and the geological chronology…

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