Echoes

Echoes_view across room cabinet in background

Echoes_view towards fireplace with candles

Echoes_view across room with chair and blue light

Dimensions variable

2011

Mixed media

Echoes was created to mark the 100th anniversary of the Charles Allis Art Museum in Milwaukee. Along with five other artists, I was asked to select a room in the museum and to reassess the Allis as an institution which is both a former residence and the repository of the Allis' personal collections.

My reason for participating was deeply personal. My father spent his whole career at Allis-Chalmers manufacturing company. When the Allis-Chalmers factory closed in the 1990s, my father felt the loss deeply. To him, it was the end of an era, a sad day for Milwaukee and for our country's manufacturing legacy.

For this installation, I imagined how the empty factory buildings, once a hive of human activity, changed as they slowly decayed and became a home for small animals and insects. At the same time, the empty buildings evoked the memories and ghosts of all the people who spent time there.

I chose to work in Charles Allis' bedroom. The objects and photographs that I added to his bedroom are a meditation on change and memory.

Here you see a view of the bedroom as you enter from the hallway.