There were many different influences that went into the creation of this piece, but credit for the initial inspiration ultimately goes to my sister. After a discussion on the different theories and schools of thought surrounding sustainability, she recommended some excerpts from The End of Nature by Bill McKibbin and Environmental Philosophy after the End of Nature by Steven Vogel. I was particularly struck by Vogel’s view of nature not as something fragile and precious that mankind has a duty to protect, but as something that we exist within and are a part of. Reading this brought my mind back to the bunker. Despite the inherent challenges of working within such an unconventional space, Battery Marcy was the perfect location for a piece inspired by those concepts. Although a man-made environment, in its disuse it has become subject to a number of natural forces: swallows building nests in empty fireplaces, rainwater seeping through the ceiling. Even the graffiti covering almost every surface is a “natural” degradation; are the teenagers with their spray paint all that different from the weeds forcing open new cracks in the concrete?

 

My piece was meant to represent the bunker as an example of the intersection between the man-made and “natural” worlds. In particular, it’s my take on the calthemites, a form of stalactite and stalagmite that grow in constructed, concrete structures like Battery Marcy. By taking this organic form and building my own in the shape of a human figure, I hope to exemplify the closeness between mankind and the world that surrounds us. Acknowledging that closeness is one of the many ways that we can encourage sustainability not just as an occasional practice, but as an integral part of our everyday lives.

-Josie Cook