Kool-Aid Rundown

October 2009

40 years on, Kool-Aid Rundown (Oct 2009), seeks to revisit and replace the hyper masculine gesture of Robert Smithson's Asphalt Rundown (Oct 1969 - his first Flow work, where a large dump truck released a load of asphalt down a cliff), with a high fructose substitute. Pouring Kool-Aid powder over a large ice form, Smithson's gesture is emasculated through the use of impermanent materials and pop campiness (one imagines the Kool-Aid man jumping out of the glacier, yelling his "Oh yeah!" slogan). The desire to introduce a large red Popsicle (seems so obvious!) into the otherwise monochrome and austere environment is ultimately subverted by the process of its own making. Rather than offer the brightly colored aesthetic of Popsicles, the work finds itself transformed into something organic and symbolic, speaking to the archipelagos history of whaling, alluding to the butchered bodies that once soiled these very beaches.

Material: Ice, Kool-Aid

Dimensions: Documented: Archival Digital Print (32" x 47")