COLLABORATIVE WORK: STEVEN BREAUX & KATHY REED > D. ABOVE & BELOW WITHIN & WITHOUT 2008

The ritualized job ethic of the oil patch corresponded to our ritualized artistic work and the natural forms that captured our imaginations corresponded to the mechanical implements- and both were being taken for granted.

After creating a large drawing of a magnolia seedpod we focused on a water tower rising like a giant mechanical plant out of the ground. We imagined it as a large tree that instead of sucking nutrients from the ground distributed sustenance to a community through its root-like plumbing. The image of intricate underground plumbing enticed us to consider the almost invisible, oral histories and ancestral, family ties that connect the people of this area.