Artist Statement

Recompose is a collaborative, site specific installation located at an abandoned steel plant between Provo and Springville, Utah. The plant closed in 1962 and no clean-up efforts have been attempted since its closure. As a result, it has become a majestic haven continually transformed by its trespassing visitors. The conceptual and aesthetic choices were defined specifically by the site. It inspired us to work with the concepts of resurrection and ownership. Inspired by the concept of resurrection, we only worked with materials present. There was an abundance of brick from torn down structures, red brick from the buildings and kiln bricks used to fabricate steel. We, in a sense, appropriated those bricks into a new structure that was whole and complete in comparison to the decomposing structures around it. Adding to this sense of wholeness and completion, we worked with a circular, concrete base. After clearing off the sand in the base, we gathered the brick and laid it down into the base. A new structure was brought to life on the decrepit site. The plant has a long history of ownership from the U.S. Government to the local university to its current owner, the City of Provo. Since 1962, each owner has failed to take full responsibility of the site, either to clean it up, or protect it from trespassers. The location is frequently used by taggers, paint ballers, and the like, each claiming it as their own. We wanted to take part in that ownership as well by creating and giving a work of art to the site that was of itself; a phoenix rising from the ashes. The piece looks to the past, of the assistance this plant gave to development of Utah and as a contributor to World War II. It looks to the future, when the site will receive the concern it deserves and again becomes a contribution to society. The piece will remain amongst the past until the day that it will meet the future.