THE PLUMMET OF EMPTINESS

In mythology, the Pelican is heralded as both self-sacrificing parent and beast representative of the depths of human existential affliction. Migration simultaneously evokes the returning to patterns of thought, a Sisyphean journey undertaken again and again, a struggle renewed year after year.

This media installation consists of projected video and audio field recordings of marsh bird flocks migrating through rural Indiana and Louisianna. With nearly all Midwestern marshland drained for agriculture, and Louisiana swamps in a state of constinual decline, egrets and white pelicans migrate to fallow cornfields and what limited waterways are left. Documentation of this annual ritual is juxtaposed with discussions about fractured relationships and recurring dysfunctional family dynamics— an exploration of the links between love, frustration, indignation, and sacrifice.