(Dis)Rupture

Installation Path

Proposal

 
(in collaboration with Bess Paupeck)

What becomes of spaces that now exist only in memory?
What happens when what was once your home disappears from the map?
What does it mean to completely change a place?
 


(Dis)Rupture is an experiential memorial that aims to tell the story of lost
neighborhoods with a guided walk through an abandoned neighborhood that
has been cut off and made into a virtual island by two highways. The mirror that
slices through the landscape represents the cut made through the Olneyville
community when a highway project came through in the 1950’s, cutting off
this area from the rest of Providence, and destroying an entire section of affordable
housing. This temporary installation is a walk, starting at the Olneyville
branch of the public library (where there will be materials that explain
the walk), and leading the viewer through the abandoned warehouses and
spaces that eventually end up at the rupture caused by the highway.
 
The path of the walk is represented in the sidewalk by a thin strip of mirror
– reflective paint, poured into a narrow cut out strip in the sidewalk –
which meanders through the neighborhood. As the viewer follows along this
path, there are several moments where the highway can be glimpsed a few
blocks away, and the mirror we have placed along the edge of the highway
is visible at these points. If one keeps following the strip of reflection in the
ground, one will end up at the edge of the neighborhood, with the highway directly
in front, to the right and to the left – the vantage point from where one
may best view the impact of the highway’s placement. It is at this point that
the reflective strip in the ground will end, replaced now by the long reflective
strip along the side of the highway. The viewer may feel wrapped by the highway
at this point, welcome to consider the reflective nature of the mirror outlining
the highway and the cost of urban expansion.
 
The 1300 feet along the side of the highway facing the neighborhood will
be covered with 25 panels of mirror that are 50 feet long and 5 feet high. The
first panel is at a 45 degree angle aimed down, to reflect people, cars, etc who
may be on the ground, twisting closer and closer towards a 90 degree angle as
it moves along the side of the highway.
 
We will also install a speaker 10 ft above the sidewalk at this endpoint,
which will loop recorded stories from members of the Olneyville community.
As part of this project, we will spend a year finding, interviewing and
archiving the narratives of this place, through the voices of its residents. This
archive will live in the Olneyville library long after this temporary installation
is gone.