Fleeting Fossils Sidewalk Installation

Monday, July 18, 2011

Marcus' Image (4th grader) -- next day

Marcus' Image --night of printing (digital)

Aisha's Image (4th grader) -- next day

Aisha's Image dissolving in the rain

Aisha's Image -- night of printing

Nancy's Image (senior citizen)

Nancy's Image -- night of printing

Jon B's Image (4th grader) -- next day

Jon B's Image -- night of printing

Historic Image (butcher wagon) -- next day

Historic image -- night of printing

Shaira's Image -- night of printing

Shaira' Image -- night of printing

Glorianne's Image -- next day

Glorianne's Image -- night of printing

Alex's Image -- next day

Alex's Image -- night of printing

Rachel's Image -- next day

Rachel's Image -- several days later, after rainstorm

Rachel's Image -- night of printing

First image printed, by anonymous 4th grader --next day

Same image -- night of printing (with my assistant Suzanne's feet). Below is an historic image that was a test print we did for the Northampton DPW

Fleeting Fossils Sidewalk Installation, Downtown Northampton, Massachusetts

Fall 2007

In 2007, I received a grant from the Black Rock Arts Foundation of San Francisco to create Fleeting Fossils, a community installation in downtown Northampton. I initially gave single-use cameras to fourth-graders and senior citizens, and then using a “portable darkroom”—a refrigerator-size framed box with a black skirt and a hole for a slide projector on top—made 25 gelatin silver prints in large format directly on the sidewalks of the city. Finally I recorded these “fleeting fossils”—brief, acutely-angled glimpses from either end of life—as they were worn away by weather and foot traffic.

While I saw the sidewalk prints as the “art” of Fleeting Fossils, members of the public saw it as an act of performance art. My assistant and I attracted onlookers, a skunk, TV crews, the police, students, one man who saw our black plastic-wrapped box and, thinking we were homeless, tried to give us a dollar, and true homeless people who offered to help us because we were on the street, too.

A few dedicated followers would seek the prints around town. One woman wrote to say the weathered images reminded her of peeling frescoes. Most people walked over them without looking.

I promised the Northampton DPW that after a week, whether the image remained or not, I’d scrub away each print. This was the hardest part of the installation, as it required scouring sidewalks with a steel brush in 30-degree weather, and moping up the soapy run-off with newspaper to prevent contamination. I told those who asked that I was performing a penance.