If we were to consider the signs right in front of us: our lifestyle, our needs and wants, our dreams, our successes and failures, we might simply regard them as the life of our own choosing, rather than indicators of anything. Truth is, we are all of us products of our time, moved by the forces of culture. Yet, we are fearfully aware of environmental disasters, such as the all-too-recent Gulf of Mexico oil spill, resource constraints, global climate change, economic upheaval, and geopolitical instability.
This installation calls our attention to new signs—the signs of change. It urges us to consider the transition back to a simpler life, the strength in community, tradition and re-learning our ancestors’ skills. It is a call to gather together and build lifeboats. As a collection, these pieces redirect our focus away from shared misfortune and toward collaborative solutions and a revisioned future, a future involving a recapturing of old things and old ways.
We share our air, our water, our time and place. We share our mistakes and our victories our gardens and our trash. While the hurdles facing humanity are daunting, building lifeboats is a chance to radically change direction, to plant seeds, germinate new relationships – to grow our future, together. The use of only collected materials to build the installation, only found and previously discarded signs, lumber, wire and trees, represents the need for a transition that will not add more to our overburdened planet, but instead will revitalize our love for and value in these “used up” materials. Looking again at objects once discarded is a very powerful way to instill the feelings of a second chance and a new beginning.
If we all make a difference, then what difference will we make? What will our lifeboats be made of and what signs will we leave in our wake?
