This body of work uses photography and video to document a water treatment facility’s release of treated wastewater into a local stream through a large pipe near Woodstock, New York. These images were captured intermittently over a span of 3 years depicting the changing colors, textures and reflected light of the natural seasonal cycle surrounding the monolithic artifact of a sewer drainage pipe. The long-term global impact of industrialized civilization on the environment is framed within the context of the artist’s personal relationship with the wilderness of the Catskill Mountains where he lives. This relationship with nature is investigated by contrasting the natural processes of growth, decay and rebirth with the incessant and unrelenting discharge of sanitized human waste.  The work confronts the viewer with their own place in modern civilization and presents it as a metaphor for their relationship with the natural world. The symmetrical formal composition evokes various forms of symbolic sacred art, such as the mandala, thus encouraging meditation and metaphysical contemplation.

 

The project exists as a series of 16 still images and a continuous loop video lasting 2 1/2 minutes. The video is typically projected directly onto the floor from above, but has also been exhibited as a projection onto a bathroom sink.