The Rat Patrol, 1979

Life size image of a rat placed amongst accumulated garbage. I started pasting these up during the 3 week garbage strike in May of 1979. Never intending to defend rats, I wanted to point out how we had created a habitat for them, and they would naturally occupy it. The city has it’s own ecosystem with a delicate balance. Rats were very visible in those days where I lived in the Wall St. area. Especially around dusk when the human traffic would abruptly taper off leaving all the days harvest for the first rats to discover. During this time I studied rat behavior and found them to be  similar ropeople in many ways, not least of which was the ability to work together as a community, making them possibly better suited to living in NYC at times. Also it has been said that rats possess a culture- if you define culture as the ability to pass information through generations without direct experience- such as a fear of predators and pesticides. Humans are the only other species that can do that.

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Viruses and Bacteria, 1998

steel and paper installation Mass MOCA kid's space, 40 ft X 9’

I wanted to impart a physical presence to microscopic organisms. These arethe new Atomic bomb- our next war ismore likely to be framed interms of germ warfare than radiation or bullets. From Mad Cow to Legionaries Disease, to the common cold, our culture shudders in fear of the unknown lurking invisibly in our personal space. If you home is your castle, think what a spread it must look like to a virus. These objects are installed on the wall to make viewers feel as though they are part of an enormous stream of minute particles, swimming all around us. We are but one in a stream of innumerable tiny players.

Viruses and Bacteria detail of Streptococci, Rabies, Typhoid, approximately 4 X 8 X 10”, welded steel and paper.

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As anthrax becomes synonymous with the postal service and it's portal into everyone's home, our culture shudders in fear. Invisible microbes usher in the cold war. Made of paper and steel, these sculptures are installed on the wall to make viewers feel as though they are part of an enormous stream of minute particles, swimming all around us. We are but one in a stream of innumerable tiny players.

Toxic Molecules, 1999
Ozone molecule and Frog with extra front leg. 24X36X12" Welded steel and papaer.

After looking at the viral organisms, I became curious about man-made pollutants that dwell close to us, the chemicals in our new homes, our clothes, our foods. Unlike viruses which you can see under a microscope, molecules are theoretical, orbiting each other, always on the move. I wanted to make them tangible, to try to understand how they behave, as they create things like odors and sickness. Working with a chemistry professor, we made drawings of Toxic Molecules, like the cancer causing chemicals dioxin and formaldehyde.

Squid & Digestive System detail with Olestra Molecule. 40X92X18" Welded steel and paper.

He also explained how new inventions- like Olestra, the fake fat, actually work in our bodies, to initiate tiny changes that occur at the invisible, molecular level. I teamed up some of these contaminants with natural forms- for example the spinal column of a rainforest newt was replaced with a chain of nitric acid (acid rain) molecules. Or, using the Olestra structure, I integrated it with a filter-feeding squid and an abstracted human digestive system, to demonstrate how this new ”miracle” molecule can sweep everything out as it washes speedily through our system, making it possible to gorge and starve at the same time. Only in America. Miro-scopic micro organisms, these were inspired also by one my favorite artists, Juan Miro.

Polyester chain with segmented worm. 18X50X12" Welded steel and paper.


Hydromaze, 1992

Welded life-size steel salmon stuffed & shrink-wrapped with plastic. Collection of Honolulu Academy of Art.
I wanted to draw a connection between diminishing supplies of clean air and water. Using the salmon as an indicator species attempting to negotiate a culverted stream, I was inspired by Seattle’s attempts to daylight buried natural streambeds, long ago sent directly into the sewer system by development of the city. The lack of distinction between natural and cultural worlds makes environmental destruction a debatable issue, as the habitats of wild species are increasingly defined by the the detritus of our infrastructure.

“Hydromaze” detail

Roll Back Bench, 1992
Concrete, steel, plantings, 5.5’X11’X30’ totalCommissioned by State of Washington Art in Public Places, for the University of Washington, Seattle. Rollback Bench was created in 1992 to celebrate 20 years of endangered species legislation. The work is a bench in the form of a dam, located in a simulated dried out stream bed, with two life size stainless steel salmon menacing those who would sit in the bench. The sculpture seeks to link legal rulings like Roe Versus Wade and The Endangered Species Act , both passed in 1973 as acts intended to preserve a spectrum of options for women as well as biodiversity. Decades later we find both these pieces of legislation under fire- hence the name “Roll Back”.

“Roll Back Bench”, detail

Social Progress, 1986

7X18X25’ Steel & Design cast, 1986.
Sponsored by the Public Art Fund. Installed at 23rd St. & 5th Ave. NYC. An attempt to activate the congested site of Broadway, 5th Avenue, and 23rd St. as a metaphor for struggle and a weighty slowness.


“Social Progress detail"

Hire Intelligence, 1983

steel, design cast & paint 8’X11’X11’
Commissioned for Dag Hammarskjold Plaza, NYC. A temporary winter installation adjacent to the UN about the irony of cold war politics.


“Hire Intelligence” detail

Commissioned by New Langdon Arts, San Francisco, a site specific installation. A simulated toxic waste site mysteriously appears in the South of Market neighborhood. A “seething heap of tumbling corrosion, this was made as a monument to the “experts”- the scientists and politicians in whom we place our trust, those who get to determine what levels of risk we should tolerate. These levels are often regulated more for manufacturers ability to comply than with the health of residents and workers. Note concrete rats cast into the rubble, and in the image to the left, an inhabitant, stepping in as a metaphor for the the American consumer, chews on it’s own tail.