In the story of the Tower of Babel the people of the world, who all live in the same place and speak the same language, build a tower to reach God. He, of course, does not like this and destroys the tower. To take it a step further, God made all people speak different languages and scattered them across the Earth. I believe the climate emergency is our common language now, and Capitalism is the American God. The paper cranes represent the people on the tower, and the transformer is meant to look like the hand of God pushing the neon up, and toppling it. We are at our Tower toppling moment, and more people will continue to be displaced and lives lost as large corporations and billionaires continue to destroy the earth.
Another artistic decision was to use some scrap glass, which I did not purchase to make this project. This was an effort to reclaim a piece that was not used and could have been old, or scratched up, making it more fragile. When I tried to take the piece down from the wall, this fragility was apparent because the glass broke. However, in a metaphorical sense, we are at our breaking point in the climate emergency.
Alexandra Faye Friedman 