By Way of Air, Land, and Water is an ongoing body of work that revolves around the documentation of past, present, and future BIPOC communities, found in and around Louisiana and beyond.
The aim of this project is to travel by way of air, land, and water and create New Work that explores and examines real and imagined representations of a time and a place, its peoples and their culture.
I seek to identify the known and unknown, the seen and unseen, and most importantly, the silenced; to reveal the overlaying collective histories and cultures of BIPOC, as well as their shared boundaries, borders, and barriers, both natural and man-made, social and political, and within public and private spaces.
My goal is to highlight and honor sites charged with a history of resistance, resilience, and endurance; as well as to bring awareness to abuses of power, specifically against marginalized communities of color, and to bring attention to colonial tools of disenfranchisement, which have by design, fostered foundations upheld by systems of oppression rooted in exploitation, extraction, and erasure and which to this day, continue to contribute to inequalities and injustices.
Norwood Mound, 2024
Archival pigment print
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Serpent Mound, 2024
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Fort Salem Mounds, 2024
Archival pigment print
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Fort Ancient Mounds, 2024
Archival pigment print
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Miamisburg Mound, 2024
Archival pigment print
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Batesville Mounds, 2022
Archival pigment print
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Pocahontas Mounds, 2022
Archival pigment print
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Louisiana State University Campus Mounds, 2018-2020
Archival pigment print
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Effigy Mounds, 2018-2020
Archival pigment print
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Aztalan Mounds, 2018-2020
Archival pigment print
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Cahokia Mounds, 2018-2020
Archival pigment print
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Parkin Mound, 2018-2020
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Winterville Mounds, 2018-2020
Archival pigment print
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Poverty Point Mounds, 2018-2020
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Emerald Mound, 2018-2020
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Marksville Mounds, 2018-2020
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BY WAY OF AIR, LAND, AND WATER (installation view)
Cox Bay marsh wetlands in Plaquemines Parish, East Bank, 2019
Archival pigment print
8.5” x 8.5”
The Time Energy company (with XTO, BOPCO, and other companies) maintains the Cox Bay oil field, in operation since 1950. Here, oil wells dot the canals dredged from the marsh. After Time Energy spilled 420,210 gallons of oil and produced water waste (NRC 1255389), the grasses died, and local marsh turned into open water. Cotton boom has been lain in a spiral pattern in an attempt to soak up the oil, brine, and radioactive material for later disposal. Produced water discharges are partially responsible for the loss of over 400 square miles of Louisiana wetlands since 1932 (USGS ofr 00418).
Bay Grand Ecaille, Plaquemines, LA. Site of Swift Energy and Hilcorp operations, 2019
Archival pigment print
8.5” x 8.5”
Grand Ecaille, a former bay named after the tarpon, is the site of some of the most dramatic oil industry and mining impacts in Louisiana since 1929. According to the Coast Guard, there have been over 400 oil releases into the Bay since January 2001. There remain two Natural Resources Disaster Assessments from 1990’s oil spills that are ongoing, and this area has perhaps the highest density of federal NRDA investigations for the many oil spills in the bay. In 2016, the Hilcorp corporation, known for its lack of survey work, ran into an older 3 inch pipeline and spilled oil over 9 square miles of this part of Barataria Bay. Again in 2018, Hilcorp had a major well blowout.
Swift Energy Operating, LLC of Texas (now “SwiftBow”) owns this platform in Bay Grand Ecaille, 2019
Archival pigment print
8.5” x 8.5”
This platform is sited on the rim of the old lake, but now open water extends in every direction, making Grand Ecaille Bay and Lake Washington, and other water bodies, all one large water body. Swift Energy owns several oyster leases in the Lake Washington field area in Plaquemines Parish, including the lease in this photo. This helps protect the company against lawsuits filed by oyster harvesters when the company spills oil into oyster leases. Swift Energy Operating is responsible for over 50% of the 404 oil releases into Grand Ecaille Bay since 2001, averaging over 15 spills per year until 2016.
(Gulf) Phillips66 – Alliance Refinery - north of Historic Ironton, Plaquemines Parish, LA, 2019
Archival pigment print
8.5” x 8.5”
From Healthy Gulf and ChemPlants.com :
1971 - Built by Gulf Refining Company. 350 Employees and 300 Contractors, 428 Full-Time Equivalent hires. 255,000 Barrels per Day.
2005 - Hurricane Katrina. Refinery down 235 days.
2012 - Post Hurricane Isaac, flooded, power problems restarting.
2014 - Agrees to pay a $ 500,000 fine relating to 10 PPM Sulfur in gasoline.
2016 - Problem with levee break, no effect on operations.
7/9/2018 - Fatal accident - contractor died from a fall at the wastewater plant.
2018 - Seeks to connect to the Dakota Access Pipeline and Bayou Bridge Pipeline with third pipeline.
2019 - Refinery shut down due to Hurricane Barry.
2020 - Refinery shut down due to Hurricane Laura, pollution exceeds hourly EPA standards for PM 2.5 during shut down.
BY WAY OF AIR, LAND, AND WATER (installation view)
BY WAY OF AIR, LAND, AND WATER (installation view)
BY WAY OF AIR, LAND, AND WATER (installation view)
BY WAY OF AIR, LAND, AND WATER (installation view detail)