outflow

REPRESENTING THE INFRASTRUCTURAL LANDSCAPE

wastewater treatment plants in charlottesville and lynchburg

I first visited the Rivanna Water and Sewer Authority wastewater treatment facility in 2006, as a graduate student in landscape architecture. It was the last stop on a tour of the path of water – not just what falls as rain, but also the water that moves from the streams and reservoirs, through our homes and our bodies.

I was taken with the strange beauty of this place, with its industrial forms set within gently rolling hills and framed by forest fragments. In 2007, as part of an independent study, I created a series of paintings and a book. I researched artists who had painted and photographed the ‘industrial sublime’, pondering notions of beauty and how we humans relate to the changes we’ve made to the land.

Years later, I drove by the Lynchburg Water Resource Recovery Facility on my way to buy art supplies. I decided to revisit the study, touring and retouring the plants, sketching and listening to water flows, birdsong and machinery hum. These are places few of us ever see, and yet they are critical to our modern lifestyles. I hope these paintings honor the people who keep these facilities running, and help the rest of us to see one of the hidden aspects of our relationship to the land.