Floodwall (installation)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Floodwall, an installation by Jana Napoli, is composed of drawers salvaged in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans in 2005.[1]
In 2005, two months after Hurricane Katrina and the collapse of the levee system, Napoli collected debris from the storm. She retrieved 750 drawers from dressers, kitchen cabinets, desks and bureaus.[2] The empty drawers were cleaned, and the addresses of the houses were marked on the back.[3] Napoli stated that "Floodwall was an attempt to give voice to the silence of a city in ruin and a people in Diaspora."[4]
The contents that remained were then photographed. The resulting objects, along with the recorded oral histories, make up the installation.[5] Floodwall poses the question to its onlookers: what price are we willing to pay for the protection of the intimacy of our households?[6]