LAKE SCULPTURE (FLOTATION DEVICE)
2021
Fiberglass, resin, found foam, poly pigments 12 x 15 x 14 ft
Commissioned by SECCA
Mayer’s LAKE SCULPTURE (flotation device) is a large-scale site-specific floating sculpture produced for her 2021 solo show at SECCA (North Carolina). Inside the museum, her traveling institutional exhibition, entitled TIMESHARE, speaks to edited environments and going indoors when going outside is no longer an option due to environmental, infrastructural, or economic collapse. This iteration presents a conceptual outdoor sculpture garden and looks to bodies of water for safety and survival.
The underlying principles of the show are influenced by survivalist and prepper subcultures, and though it does not necessarily offer reassurance, it does offer notions of adaptation, reflecting on the resilience of humans throughout millennia.
LAKE SCULPTURE (flotation device) is directly inspired by a wall piece in the exhibit, A Sculpture Can Be Used As A Flotation Device In Times of Emergency (2018) which proposes alternate functions of artworks as their values shift in times of emergency. LAKE SCULPTURE can function as a safety vessel in a water-based emergency. Or, it can just be art.