When Water Was Here

The piece alludes to the past, when Madison’s smallest lake was surrounded by marshland, effigy markers and native camps and to its possible dark future, when the lake is further reduced by sediment from storm sewers and human intervention. Based loosely upon primitive canoe structures found in Northern European burial graves over 5,000 years ago, When Water Was Here is both a prayer and a call to action, referencing the dynamic and changing nature of the landscape, those who pass over it and alter it, and the fragile balance between humans and biological systems.

Willow, dogwood and sinew, 28 feet long, 4 feet tall, suspended 15 feet above biking path and former waterway.

Vilas Park, Madison, WI, 2007-2011.