THIRST, 1999
Site-Specific Mixed-Media Installation
The Syrup Factory — Kansas City, MO
The discovery of At the Hawk's Well, one of William Butler Yeats' Four Plays for Dancers written in the style of the Noh drama of Japan, inspired two Thirst pieces focusing on water. Having grown up in Japan, the interweaving of traditional Irish and Japanese culture and lore, along with the peculiar human longing for immortality and search for the fountain of youth in Yeats’ play were of particular interest.
These two Thirst pieces explore the idea of immortality being found in the waters of a particular place or in particular rituals, including the Japanese tea ceremony and in the art of dowsing for water. In Thirst, water dripping from melting ice turned to steam as it hit heated steel discs so that, just as with the fountain of youth, the waters are never accessible for drinking – and immortality remains elusive.
Mixed-media Installation: 3 steel discs with heating elements; ice cast on wire bucket forms; wood & steel “fishing poles”suspending monitors playing video of a pair of bare feet walking across a dry dirt surface; a light bulb.
15 ft. x 20 ft. x 4 ft.
THIRST (Elegy for Esther), 2001
For Carriage House Installations
Islip Art Museum — East Islip, NY
In THIRST (Elegy for Esther) 2001, the second of the Thirst projects, timers control the amount of water flowing through a series of translucent hose and dripping onto the heated steel discs before turning to steam. Suspended like lead weights from fishing poles are small video monitors, each monitor playing a video of a dowser using his divining rods in search of water interspersed with a tea master performing tea ceremony rituals.
