Falter (Human #9)

Though the sense of climate catastrophe in the Falter series may seem obvious, it was not to me when it began. Instead, it was launched out of an exploration of single image evocative of anxiety: I saw a man teetering on poles above fetid water, dependent on these homemade stilts to move, but afraid to travel forward or backward. As I worked through the series, it developed into an outlandish narrative – everyday people trudging home from work or off to school, forced to pick their way through a flooded American landscape. As the works evolved, more and more elements of modern life cropped up, including shopping center signage, utility poles, and billboards, juxtaposing rising waters with a familiar world made muddy and uninhabitable. At the center are the people left behind to cope with a new normal, living out their lives as ever.