Allison McElheny

Be Live

Sponsored by American Visionary Art Museum

I became inspired by thinking about urban infrastructure in relationship to the tree. Power lines, so ubiquitous an urban landscape we barely consider them, are beautiful illustrations of the networking potential of cities. The networks we depend on in urban environments support and sustain our lifestyles. They enable growth. They transfer and distribute resources linking us our neighbors and to the world. Relating these power lines to a tree? its branch system above and roots system below? presents an opportunity to both appreciate the complex networks that bring juice of the city to our homes and businesses, but at the same time to suggest a more critical attitude towards our persistent connection to “the grid” with its relentless fronds of wires in a wireless era. Here is also an opportunity to be inspired by the perfectly engineered energy production and distribution talents of the natural tree. We city dwellers can look to the trees for inspiration to network with each other, to produce connections, to distribute information and ideas that sustain and enrich our urban lives? in short, to really make the wires we see out our back doors live. Or, for Baltimoreans we’ll just say BE LIVE.

Location: Area E | Charles Village