"Indestructible Language" by Mary Ellen Carroll Launches The Precipice Alliance

THE PRECIPICE ALLIANCE DEBUTS WITH MARY ELLEN CARROLL’S “INDESTRUCTIBLE LANGUAGE” INSTALLATION
First Non-For Profit Corporation Utilizing Public Art to Communicate Global Warming Message

New York, NY - The Precipice Alliance, a 501©(3) non-profit organization collaborating with artists to direct public attention to global warming, launches with an inaugural artwork by the contemporary artist Mary Ellen Carroll. This first large-scale project will consist of 8-foot high illuminated characters, adding up to the phrase: IT IS GREEN THINKS NATURE EVEN IN THE DARK. The piece will be installed in the window bays of all five former American Can factory buildings (CANCO lofts) in Jersey City, New Jersey on November 1st, 2006 and will be exhibited for six months, through April 1st, 2007. An event will take place on November 13th to celebrate the launch of this organization and its first project.

CANCO lofts is the largest and most innovative rehabilitation of an industrial facility in the New York metropolitan area, built from the 1 million square foot factory that once housed the American Can Company in Jersey City. Industrial by heritage and contemporary in design, this unique new condominium community offers dramatic, light-filled spaces and luxury loft living minutes from Manhattan. The work will be illuminated at night, and will be visible to tens of thousands of commuters daily traveling on the New Jersey Turnpike, and will be visible by air to passengers flying over Newark Airport.

Mary Ellen Carroll’s artwork, known as “Indestructible Language”, explores the duality inherent in language, whose sinuosity is a continuous loop that one can enter at various points. Carroll’s choice of phrase serves as a reiterative device, highlighting the environmental issues that are the Precipice Alliance’s main focus. “IT IS” immediately states that the issue at hand is one of extreme relevance; in fact, the hazards of greenhouse gas emissions are a proven fact. “GREEN” carries with it multiple interpretations: ominous connotations pertaining to money and greenhouse gas emissions, and simultaneously the color of nature and earth, which are positive. “THINKS” reinforces the human capability to engage in cognitive thought, which differentiates the human being from every other species in the world, while “NATURE” echoes the use of “GREEN” earlier. “EVEN” denotes that this is a non-partisan issue, while “IN THE DARK” is both literal and metaphorical: the lead-glass tubing will only be lit-up and visible in the dark. It is also directly confronts the viewer, asking them to engage with this crucial issue.

In accordance with the program mission, that of educating the public about practical steps to conserve energy and reduce harmful greenhouse gas emissions, the artwork will be carbon neutral, using low-wattage, energy-efficient transformers and lead-free glass tubing. New and emerging green power technology generates electricity that produces little or no global warming pollution. In addition, educational materials to take-away will be provided for the public. Limited silk-screen editions of this work will also be available (for purchase for how much?

Artist Joel Sternfeld, Executive Director Donna Wingate, and Robert Hammond (founder of Friends of the High Line) have founded The Precipice Alliance, a sponsored organization of the New York Foundation for the Arts, a 501©(3) tax-exempt organization, with the goal of increasing awareness of the global effects of climate change. With this in mind, the Alliance plans to fund high profile, innovative public artworks that specifically address this urgent matter while simultaneously functioning as an educational and informational forum. By executing large-scale contemporary artworks in public venues, and aligning each artwork with a specific environmental initiative and related public response, the Alliance believes that artists can give form to the intangible and help to deliver the powerful message about the necessity of meeting the critical challenge of combating global warming. Their next project will involve a collaboration with artist Alexis Rockman, who will produce four extreme weather paintings to be displayed in four states (Colorado, Mississippi, Texas, and Kansas), with an accompanying billboard campaign.

The conceptual artist Mary Ellen Carroll lives and works in New York City, and her projects have always been concerned with notions of representation and identification, which reveal a dedication to political and social critique. She is the recipient of many honors and awards, including a Pollack/Krasner Award, a Guggenheim Fellowship, and a Rockefeller Fellowship, and her work has been exhibited at many national and international galleries and institutions, including the Whitney Museum, ICA London, and MOMUK Vienna.

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