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I am greeted by the image of a New Orleanais kitchen in disarray upon entering the “State of Emergency” exhibit in the Van Every Gallery of the Visual Arts Center (VAC). The photo shows the aftermath of nature battling human development in the summer of 2005. Hurricane Katrina slammed the Louisiana coast, and showed no mercy for the city of New Orleans. The superiority of wind, water, and waves was demonstrated in several other works present at this exhibit: some resembled the destruction caused by tropical storms while others portrayed the inundation of urban areas by floods. “Flood Cubes” by Eben Goff is the piece I found to be the most visually and intellectually appealing due to its originality and candidness. The piece dually reflects on pollution and urbanization, two products of the anthropocene, in the Los Angeles region.
In January of 2010, before a heavy rainfall, Goff attached the clean chrome cubes (the same cubes that 4 years later were shipped to Davidson, North Carolina) to anchors fastened to the bottom of the Los Angeles River. The artist was familiar with the precipitation patterns of this region and anticipated that “winter rains are often heavier” even though “debris flow amounts are typically highest in fall after the dry summer months” (Eben Goff, 2013). Knowing this, he was able to set up the appropriate stage for the metal cubes to transform themselves into art.
The cubes are unique conceptually and artistically. Although originally clean, I find them covered in natural and “unnatural” elements, with only part of the silver metal frame visible. Part of a palm tree, or maybe a coconut tree, swings up from the clean wooden floor of the VAC to the top of the cube on my right. This cube has more of a mix between pieces of plants and plastic than the cube on my left. The frame of the cube on my left is facing me, so I walk around to analyze the part that is now covered in things “local” to Los Angeles. A surplus of yellow police tape is wrapped around the bottom, connecting the white plastic bag and red yarn on one side to the black plastic bag on the other. There is some grass and there are some leaves, but mostly this cube is covered in man-made objects. While scrutinizing this piece of art, I wonder at which point “unnatural” elements become “natural”. Does this occur through a piece of art representative of the things found in a stream? Does a stream become “unnatural” if it is floating down a cement riverbed? Successfully, Goff has brought two issues to light: urbanization and pollution.
In addition to the visuals on the floor, Goff provided instructions to replicate his work called “To Replenish a Flood Cube”. Replicate is not an accurate term because every cube is a result and creation of the most recent rainstorm and trash in the riverbed. Goff doesn’t edit the cube, but displays them raw and instructs, “receding floodwaters will reveal a Flood Cube replenished with a new coating of debris.”
In these instructions Goff also includes advice to receive the best results:
“An L.A. area rainstorm with total precipitation amounts of ½ inch will cause flooding of creeks, some major river channels, and is a sufficiently large storm for this sculpting process, however a storm with greater tan >1/2 inch total rainfall is ideal.”
Urbanization decreases the amount of time it takes rainfall to reach streams by removing the vegetation that normally absorbs this water. This rainfall flows more quickly over paved sidewalks and roads than it would through grass and forests, which creates more flooding in a shorter time period. Engineers paved over the original streambed of the Los Angeles River in 1938 in an attempt to solve the floods that had bothered the city in past years. Although Goff displays litter and debris to demonstrate the disaster that is our environment, the imminent floods caused by urbanization are what made the final product possible. This problem is not specific to Los Angeles: it is also portrayed in the very first image I saw upon entering the “State of Emergency” exhibit.
Site of interest: http://ebengoff.net/flood-cubes/