Cohocksink

The idea and expectation of progress is woven into the American identity. From the very first settlers, to technological advancements of contemporary life being achieved at a lightning pace. Americans have become used to miracles, perfection, and convenience. Progress is expected. Americans measure and communicate progress in different ways, but the physical mark of progress is conveyed through the acquisition of goods and the altering of land. This is seen not only as progress, but personal improvement. This relationship ties one's sense of self-worth directly to wealth, material goods, and the landscape. These become measurable visual metrics, perpetuating prescriptive views of progress as they relate to American identity.

Cohocksink examines this relationship between progress and prescriptive American identity. The work uses a buried creek bed as a mythological guide. The eponymous creek was once an important source of industrial power for mills in the wilderness surrounding Philadelphia. Highly polluted, it was covered over just before the American Civil War. It now exists as a storm drain, its mark imprinted onto the land through the contemporary street grid above.