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Valley Creek Disaster Area

Thornton Dial
  • TD - Valley Creek Disaster Area - Master Image

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    Photo: Stephen Pitkin/Pitkin Studio
2004
Tin, wood, cloth caning, wire, corn shucks, chicken wire, enamel, and spray paint on canvas on wood
107 x 73 x 4.5 inches
Collection of
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
Museum purchase and gift of the Souls Grown Deep Foundation
Description

Valley Creek Disaster Area documents a 1983 flood that devastated many neighborhoods in the Birmingham area, including Dial's own, when control measures were put in place too slowly in the black impoverished areas must under siege. Creating an aerial view of the catastrophe, Dial captured the flotsam and jetsam of the devastated urban landscape and turned an image of mass ruination into a poetic contemplation of loss and the capriciousness of power, in both nature and society.