Underwater

Underwater is about the housing crisis and recession, drowning or near drowning, resiliency and recovery. It is about the burden and the eventual sale of the artist's waterfront home in Rhode Island.

Welded steel and lacquer sculptural waves mirror the narrative of the plasma torched text, fragments of memories and reflections. Great roiling waves are poised to crash, to engulf the viewer, but eventually subside, as recovery begins and memories fade.

Underwater

Beneath the weight of the albatross,

We forget how to smile.

Four years of trying to sell.

Four years of heavy losses.

We try to forget. At least for a little while.

Hope lost.

And found.

Halfway to halfway to halfway.

A bonfire scorches the sky.

We say goodbye

And pick 24 pounds of blueberries.

I bike through Boston in the rain.

In no hurry, I realize it doesn't matter

That I'm soaked.

Every now and then I remember,

We have no house.

Underwater is about drowning or near drowning.

Underwater is about one house and about the whole country, about the crash of 2008 and the recovery we didn't have. Underwater is about economic disaster and emotional burden.

Underwater is about memory - how memories appear and shift and fade away.

It's about foreclosures and loss. It's about one sale, after four years of trying.

It's about recovery and resilience. It's about the absence of memory.

Underwater was created in the months around the sale of the artist's waterfront Rhode Island home, started a month before an offer was made and finished a month after the sale was completed. Across the three panels of Underwater, the tone of memories shifts, as the economic and emotional burden lifts.

In the first panel, written early in the sale contract period, before any contingencies were removed, the great weight of the previous four years is still easily recalled and is only beginning to lift.

The second panel, written near the end of the contract period, during unexpected delays, speaks of hope but also of fear. Tinged with nostalgia, fond memories bubble up to the surface. The second panel speaks boldly of celebration, but also of profound fatigue.

The third panel, written a month after the close of the contract, explores forgetfulness and recovery, as the burden borne for four years quickly fades.

Underwater is part of Greene’s Reflections series, place based explorations incorporating memories and reflections on history, economic, social and environmental change. Other works in the series include Tide Tables, Conversation over the Fjords and Ducking Under Bridges.

The steel and lacquer wall mounted triptych Underwater was designed for Todd Merrill Studio Collective at Art Miami. Underwater has appeared in whitewall magazine and Blouin Artinfo.

Dimensions: Underwater I: 88” x 55” x 15”, Underwater II: 77” x 50” x 18”’, Underwater III: 92” x 38” x 12”

Please inquire for price.