Desert Paraklausithyron

Desert Paraklausithyron is a sculptural installation of a mysterious trap door installed in Wonder Valley, CA. From beneath weathered wooden slats, one can hear the sound of flowing water. Pulling on the handle reveals the door to be locked—from the inside.

A paraklausithyron is an Ancient Greek literary motif where a drunken lover sings a lament outside the locked door of his customary mistress. In a straightforward way, Desert Paraklausithyron is about environmentalism, but it also represents an embodiment of roles: the desirer and the mistress, dependency and abundance, and the threshold between the real world and a fantasy world.

The materials for the piece are from the area of the artist's home in Binghamton, NY, and the audio recording is of the Susquehanna River, which runs through Binghamton. The Susquehanna overflowed its banks and flooded the city catastrophically in both 2006 and 2011. Water, in abundance and shortfall, is a link between the two sites.

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Desert Paraklausithyron
2014
Installed in Wonder Valley, CA
Wood, handle, lock, speakers, MP3 player
Approx. 22 x 26 in.