Dust Storm (Dalhart, Texas), 2007

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zvv4ddH3O2s[/youtube]

‘Dust Storm (Dalhart, Texas) 2007’ extends from a single archival photograph of a storm from the 1930’s American Dust Bowl. The Dust Bowl event, which the artist associates with a surge of petroleum based power in the early 20th century, has been identified as a central player in the economic slump of that time – the Great Depression.

Production of the work involved the virtual reconstruction – based on hundreds of the artist’s own photographs and video – of a ten mile square section of Texan landscape close to the town of Dalhart, an area scattered with windmills, farms and fences. This documentation was subsequently enhanced by publicly accessible satellite and topographical data.

Once activated, a virtual storm unfolds in a sculptural and constantly random manner within the reconstructed landscape.