Waterworks

In my piece for the Waterworks Museum in Chestnut Hill, MA, I worked with underwater robotic video footage shot during a marine biology cruise. I was interested in documenting the impulse to comb, collect, and archive the ocean floor. This process mirrors a desire implicit in the documentary process--to collect, consider, and assign value to subject matter. I incorporated architectural elements that echoed the themes of my work: projected in a 19th century water treatment plant, this desire to harness nature was present in both the content of the video and its projection space. Juxtaposing the limitless depth of the ocean against the mechanical bells of a steam engine, the piece explores the notion that nothing attains significance except through a process of limitation or transformation.