Abstract

This artwork is an effort to consider the intersecting flows of time, sediment, water, and humans and the impacts of Hurricane Harvey on the city of Houston in the past and into the future.

Sand peel sculptures were created from the sediments deposited by Hurricane Harvey in Buffalo Bayou Park. The sand peel sculptures, along with hydraulic data and human impact data, archive the flooding, adjustment, and recovery phases of Harvey in Buffalo Bayou. The combination of scientific and artistic perspectives in the sand peel sculptures imbue them with a power beyond what either one can create alone. Though both disciplines have similarities, being based on looking and observation, the combination of the two generates a point of access that crosses worlds and brings the perspective of one discipline onto the other and vice versa. With this understanding of flow of people, flow of coastline, flow of time—the sand peel sculptures endure, empowering multiple perspectives of art and science, recognizing the realities of human coexistence with nature and providing an approach to imagining a future for Houston, a cosmopolitan city built on a retreating fluvial coastal plain.