Petroleum Children

The North Dakota access pipeline, a project which will, hands down contribute to man-made climate change is an effort which will choke recent progress in green initiatives, and solidify the presence of an oil industry infrastructure in America. A last ditch effort to force feed Americans petroleum, the NDAL was a 1,200 mile pipeline to be built by Texas-based Energy Transfer Partners (a company with which Donald Trump owns stock). The pipeline is designed to transport nearly 570,000 Barrells of crude oil daily from North Dakota to Illinois.

The recent developments which have re-routed the pipeline have proven to be problematic. When considering the title of the show, CROSSING BORDERS, it was important to consider our political climate, but also the state of our atmosphere. The oil derrick is a structure which traditionally helps in the extrusion of oil from the earths crust. The name of this rig ironically is named after Thomas Derrick an Elizabethan Era Executioner. The work is created using balloons, a petroleum based product, which not only emulate America’s child-like ignorance to our energy crisis, they also allude to the impossibility of sustaining production and capture of fossil fuels. The balloons begin inflated with tension, however over time “potential energy” and life which was once viable is lost. As the balloons deflate, they reveal a failing structure, flawed from genesis.