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.

Watertower Oral History Codex
5. Watertower Oral History Codex
Pastel, conte on paper
2008