Emergency Shelter

In the course of my day job I get to see inside many high dollar homes in the Milwaukee area. One day I was tasked with removing fabric panels from the walls of a very expensive, historic mansion on the lake, and as I worked I thought about how much money it cost to install and deinstall these frivolous pieces of fabric. I’m sure it would be quite a bit to me, and even more to the high percentage people in Milwaukee who live in outright poverty. It is a community with a stark divide between rich and poor, and I see both sides of it everyday as I go through the more downtrodden areas to work within the moneyed communities surrounding the city.

I felt compelled to react through the material that I was taking out. I wanted to use it in a way that might call attention to the issues I contemplated as I worked. I selected a site along the Milwaukee River in which to build an “emergency shelter”, as if I had to eke out my survival by salvaging what I could from the wealthy. The Milwaukee River is a major dividing feature between classes and neighborhoods within the community, and it is also an area that attracts many homeless people. I pitched my makeshift tent, creating a bright checkered spot among the deep white snow, and left it for passers by to stumble upon and wonder exactly what it was they had just found.