&Now 2019 Conference

“Foul Chutes” is an immersive exhibit. The text of the piece is an essay displayed on a 50ft scroll suspended vertically on fishing line, in the shape of a spiral. The text itself is designed in the concrete shape of the Mississippi River, seen from above. When a reader walks to the center of the spiral, they find a pitcher and a water basin, containing water from the Mississippi River.

The two parallel “strands” of text trace the history of the Mississippi River Basin by tracing its trash—the evidence of those who have lived alongside the river, and reveals that the history of river trash is a history of violence. The essay also traces a friendship between two women, and the trip they take to explore an abandoned “Mississippi River Model,” a concrete scale-model left to decay in Buddy Butts park outside Jackson, MS.

“Foul Chutes” is part of a genre of installed texts that aim to interrupt traditional modes of spending time with art by inviting an audience to participate in meaning-making through fragments, visuals, and movement. “Foul Chutes” invites readers and lookers alike to consider how the shape a text takes on can dictate the stories it is allowed to deliver. This essay was first exhibited as part of a week-long exhibit of visual essays at the Trissolini Gallery in Athens, OH.