Sweet Contents

2019

San Diego, California

(3) tanks, 76’ diameter x 27’

Steel cable, acrylic fiber, illumination

Commissioned by Port of San Diego

Description:

The Port of San Diego was interested in drawing attention and appreciation to its active working downtown waterfront through a series of temporary artistic interventions. Asked to research the Tenth Avenue Marine Terminal for suitable sites, I found that three massive steel tanks formerly used to store molasses and palm oil perfectly embodied the busy terminal’s specialized capacity to handle non-containerized goods for import and export. Using these tanks as a framework for the installation, Sweet Contents imagines the sugary brown syrup as an organic, overflowing stream of colors, blending as they cascade over the rim of the tanks and into the daylight.  Through the accumulation of thousands of individual strands of colored acrylic fiber, Sweet Contents made the banal tanks visible to the downtown and Barrio Logan communities before their ultimate demise.