Site Layers
Ferens Art Gallery, 9 March


Steel tubing, scaffolding clamps, brooms, speakers, wood, garbage
Site Layers is the central work of Reading the River, an installation based on the debris found at key sites in and around the city of Hull. Site Layers is comprised of a primary support structure created out of industrial scaffolding which houses an interior form made up of four brooms, speakers, and teacups with layers of netting suspended between four brooms holding found debris collected from specific sites in Hull. Sounds of sweeping from the landfill and the streets of Hull are broadcast from each broom. The debris layers will create an exploded stratified system symbolic of a landfill. The multiple layers holding the found debris are delicately balanced between the four brooms and teacups symbolizing our tenuous relationship with the byproduct of consumption.



detail
At end of each broom stick is a teacup full of tea, which symbolizes the delicate balance we have with the environment. Tea time, taken at mid-afternoon, is a time for contemplation and rest from the labors of the day. It is a time to replenish one's energy prior to returning to the task at hand. The teacups suggest repose and contemplation of our relationship with trash. Each broom attached with a rope to a collection of found debris from the landfill used as a counterweight for maintaining the structure underneath the scaffolding, which operates as a supra skeleton. We use scaffolding in the city to be able access places on buildings that would otherwise be impossible or difficult to reach. In the city scaffolding is usually employed for renovation purposes in architecture or for cleaning and maintaining a buildingd facade. In Site Layers, the scaffolding is a structure of support used for renewal and it also represents a link in the cycle of consumption. The site emphasis will be on the place. use scaffolding in the city to be able access places on buildings that would otherwise be impossible or difficult to reach. In the city scaffolding is usually employed for renovation purposes in architecture or for cleaning and maintaining a buildings facade. In Site Layers, the scaffolding is a structure of support used for renewal and it also represents a link in the cycle of consumption. The site emphasis will be on
the place.
four brooms which supported the center layers suspended above the floor of the gallery.