Susie & Betsy BRANDT
November 12-16, 2003


"White Noise"



















Impressions of Paradise and Niagara Falls, NY


Background

When the first written accounts of Niagara Falls were published in Europe in 1684, the falls were extremely 
inaccessible to the average tourist - in fact, widespread recreational travel hadn't quite been invented. Early 
explorers portrayed the majestic falls as an untouched, sublime landscape that represented a version of 
primeval paradise, and this idealized image fermented in the European imagination for more than 100 years.
Meanwhile, the European settlement in North America expanded. When the Erie Canal was built in the early 
1800's, travel became easier and the falls paradise soon became a tourist Mecca.

Over the years the spectacle of massive amounts of falling water has cast many a transcendent spell on the pilgrim/honeymooner/daredevil/entrepreneur/visitor, who, in turn, has left an amazing imprint on the surrounding 
landscape.  During the course of our month-long residency at CEPA Gallery in Buffalo, NY, we made many 
excursions to Niagara Falls and its environs to explore that imprint. Our mission became to uncover the 
undiscovered, to represent the under-represented , and to collect and unite our impressions of the surrounding 
landscape with one of the sublime wonders of world.

The Project

The basis of the installation is a tourist brochure made during our June 2001 residency. The brochure unfolds 
to reveal coagulated photographs of the overlooked, purposely ignored embarrassments and other uncelebrated 
wonders of Niagara Falls, NY collected during our stay at CEPA. Mixed into this visual brew are icons of love 
and paradise.  When completely unfolded the large inside panel reveals images of water selected from the vast 
treasure trove of historical and contemporary images of Niagara Falls combined to create one large flow. The  
brochure's only text, "YOURS UNTIL NIAGARA FALLS", borrowed from a tourist souvenir, links eternal aspects 
of the Waterfall, Love and the Industrial Legacy.

For the installation, White Noise, the brochures were unfolded and laid out in repeat patterns. The "uncelebrated 
wonders" side was used for wallpaper covering two small walls of the gallery. The "water" side of the brochure 
was used to create a pleated drapery forming a large, waterfall-like, semi circular panel that engulfed most of 
the wall space.  A pair of swag lamps with a photographic water droplet surface welcomed viewers into the gallery, 
and as viewers entered the space, their feet discover surprises under the anonymous brown carpet, surprises that 
piled up near the walls causing the carpeting to mound up and the drapery to wad up. Located at the site of this 
domestic disruption was a vent pipe emerging from the carpet of our toxic/honeymoon/hydro/waste/fall/dump land 
of desire.

Susie Brandt    Betsy Brandt