Après Nous Le Déluge
In Fall 2019, in trying to discover the connection between southeast Louisiana's petrochemical production and refining, to the landscape of central Illinois, I began to take notice of how integral corn was. Not only as a source in ethanol refining, but also in the politics of a mono-crop economy which mimics Louisiana's reliance on petrochemical industries. This paradox of reliance on the very methods of resource extraction that have led to a bleak ecological outlook was baffling to me. I came across the phrase “Après Nous Le Déluge” in two books I was reading at the time: Fossil Capital by Andreas Malm and The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky. In both instances, the phrase was used to refer to an impending demise and to reap what we have sown, on either a personal, ecological, or economical level. This installation takes into account past action, current circumstances, and projects into what may be the future situation of attempting to stay above the flood.
