When experiencing John Gerrard’s Dust Storm (Dalhart, Texas 2007) Realtime 3D projection, we cannot even take comfort in the awe-inspiring hugeness of natural forces. We know that this cloud is a construction. We can tell from its pace and way of moving that it has been digitally manipulated.
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If Gerrard is neither presenting us with a realistic depiction of the land or an embodiment of American values, what can we make of this terrifying scene? The piece becomes an expression of our anxieties, our fears, of our destructiveness as a species. Most of all, it becomes a metaphor for the tragic fact that the forces outside our control that are seemingly closing in on us can no longer be attributed to God, or nature or anything greater than ourselves. Instead, we fear war, global warming, environmental destruction, and economic collapse.
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Some of these threats may not have completely materialized, at least in a way that affects all of our daily lives. At the same time we feel that they are slowly advancing and, like the dust cloud, will swallow us whole.
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I think we've all had days like this. How we respond to it defines our unique character...
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