SEEP
June 2022
This outdoor project space is located in the Bywater neighborhood, NOLA. The space is 11.5x30x11 feet, and the side walls are built from barge boards, reclaimed wood taken from barges that moved south down the Mississippi River, and were then broken up rather than make the return trip north. SHED is located just two blocks from the deepest channel of the river.
SEEP was made specifically for this site. The location amplifies the conceptual entanglements through place, time, and weather conditions. The work is composed from materials that can tolerate the humid environment, high heat, and frequent rain of the outdoor location. Materials include clear and colored vinyl, plastic reflective “fabric”, aluminum, ceramic, and dye-printed satin. Photos are inkjet printed and mounted on dead-soft aluminum sheet. The wall color was chosen from a chart of urine colors, meant to informally predict the health of a body based upon the color of the liquid. Inside is outside. Outside is in.
SEEP refers to the many ways that place, location, memory, history, and the environment are in constant flux, seeping into new configurations, relationships, and states of being. It refers to the ever-present moisture and porosity of boundaries, allowing things to penetrate, percolate, and perpetuate new admixtures. It’s about the dark and the dank, the stain that persistently returns, the impossibility of controlling liquid. Look closely at these installation images, and you’ll see that the forms end where the water begins, seeped around the edges.
-Melissa Pokorny









