In The Balance: Industry, Legacy, Perspectives
Margaret Kent

Materials: assorted wood, metal, glass (Kerr mason jars), wire, nylon thread, found objects.

In trying to process the experience of visiting Gary’s industrial and post-industrial landscape with the Center for Land Use Interpretation, I initially began thinking about the costs and benefits of construction, operation, dependence upon, and ultimately, abandonment of the steel mills which serve as a backdrop for both Gary’s growth and decline.  Contemplating costs and benefits evolved into a broader exploration of the concepts and issues that the field trip raised for me.

In The Balance features five juxtapositions:

1) Product vs. Pollution
2) Natural vs. Built
3) Industry vs. Vacancy
4) Monument vs. Ruin
5) Artifact vs. Waste

Each pair does not necessarily consist of opposites, or of a clear cost and a benefit.  Instead, I chose concepts that offset each other in a way that, hopefully, provokes viewers to think about the complexities of a landscape so altered by human innovation, need, and greed.  The first three juxtapositions concern industry and its consequences: what is produced, what has been destroyed, and what is left behind.  The last two juxtapositions, which were particularly inspired by our visit to an abandoned cement mill, provide possible perspectives on a post-industrial site that can be considered either a landmark or a blemish. 

The mobile, with each of its five pairs, evokes a series of scales; these scales are weighing, comparing, and balancing, but not inherently judging.  My goal is not to assign value, but rather to physically demonstrate these conceptual balances. 

I am particularly grateful to Chris Taylor of Land Arts of the American West for steering me towards the final form of this project.