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Mary Ellen Carroll
indestructible language
indestructible language
Click here to view an aerial video of the installaiton.
The Precipice Alliance launches its program with an inaugural artwork by conceptual artist Mary Ellen Carroll. This large-scale project will consist of 8-foot high illuminated characters, spelling out the phrase: IT IS GREEN THINKS NATURE EVEN IN THE DARK. The nearly 900-foot-long piece will be installed in the window bays of all five former American Can factory buildings (CANCO lofts) in Jersey City, New Jersey on November 1st, 2006 and will remain on view through April 2007. The work will be illuminated at night, and will be visible to tens of thousands of commuters daily traveling on the Pulaski Skyway and the New Jersey Turnpike. It will also be visible by air to passengers flying into Newark Airport, reaching millions of viewers.
The following explanation from Mary Ellen Carroll illuminates her choice of words in the neon text:
The Precipice Alliance launches its program with an inaugural artwork by conceptual artist Mary Ellen Carroll. This large-scale project will consist of 8-foot high illuminated characters, spelling out the phrase: IT IS GREEN THINKS NATURE EVEN IN THE DARK. The nearly 900-foot-long piece will be installed in the window bays of all five former American Can factory buildings (CANCO lofts) in Jersey City, New Jersey on November 1st, 2006 and will remain on view through April 2007. The work will be illuminated at night, and will be visible to tens of thousands of commuters daily traveling on the Pulaski Skyway and the New Jersey Turnpike. It will also be visible by air to passengers flying into Newark Airport, reaching millions of viewers.
The following explanation from Mary Ellen Carroll illuminates her choice of words in the neon text:
IT IS: Global warming exists. It's been proven scientifically, hence to begin with the words, it is.
GREEN: A color, what is visible. The neon is red, and green is the compliment of the color red. An indirect reference to the problem–`green' house gas. Effecting Global Climate change can be profitable: culturally, politically and economically. The noun utilized for environmental and lifestyle issues is Green. The use of green as an emotional affectation as in envy. One equates envy with something desired, desirable and in this instance the desire is about action, awareness, consciousness.
THINKS: cognition, what distinguishes humans from other living beings.
NATURE: man, earth, the atmosphere, outside, an animate being. `The thing' as in Heideggerian sense of existence.
EVEN:The adverb. The issue is non-partisan. The optimal condition is to be carbon neutral–even.
IN THE DARK: The idiom. A stand alone phrase that reflects back to the process of viewing the language, referencing the sign itself that is only visible in the dark. If the intention is to not see the issue, the language ends at where it began with it being a moral question. One chooses to remain “in the dark” on the issue, knowing what we know about global climate change.
indestructible language photographed from the air at dusk.
GREEN: A color, what is visible. The neon is red, and green is the compliment of the color red. An indirect reference to the problem–`green' house gas. Effecting Global Climate change can be profitable: culturally, politically and economically. The noun utilized for environmental and lifestyle issues is Green. The use of green as an emotional affectation as in envy. One equates envy with something desired, desirable and in this instance the desire is about action, awareness, consciousness.
THINKS: cognition, what distinguishes humans from other living beings.
NATURE: man, earth, the atmosphere, outside, an animate being. `The thing' as in Heideggerian sense of existence.
EVEN:The adverb. The issue is non-partisan. The optimal condition is to be carbon neutral–even.
IN THE DARK: The idiom. A stand alone phrase that reflects back to the process of viewing the language, referencing the sign itself that is only visible in the dark. If the intention is to not see the issue, the language ends at where it began with it being a moral question. One chooses to remain “in the dark” on the issue, knowing what we know about global climate change.
indestructible language photographed from the air at dusk.