Filum Aquae: The Thread of the Storm

This work began with the consideration of a line on a map - the international border between Windsor, Ontario and Detroit, Michigan that cleaves the Detroit River in two - and the gaps that exist between the experience of place and its representations. In October of 1999 I set sail upon the river with the intent to inhabit and trace this invisible line, and by doing so, transform the representation of the border - the cartographic line - into a place. Guided by a dashed line indicating the borderline's existence, a set of coordinates identifying its location, and three invisible satellites orbiting above my head, I set out. The resultant multimedia installation at the Art Gallery of Windsor reflects my understandings of the river's indivisibility and the line's ephemeral and contradictory qualities - a cultural, political and economic fissure drawn through a body of water.