Tsunami Evacuation | Dawn Stetzel

Title: Tsunami Evacuation: Test-Run
Place/Time: 2016

Size: lifejacket: 25″ x 15″ x 4″, cart: 3′ x 2’10” x 5’10”
Materials: lifejacket: sewn canvas from discarded beach-found camp/lounge chairs, roadside-found straps and foam, cart: harbor-found wood/hardware/plastic/foam, wood/tin from demolished 1930’s beach hotel, discarded waterfront street banner, fabric hotel-sheet chinking, road-found caution sign, marine-grade sealant

Details (condensed):
Tsunami Evacuation Cart maneuvers on land yet is also equipped with floatation devices. It is a tool in which I explore what it is like to live in an area under tsunami threat, engaging in “test-runs” and “test-floats” as part of disaster preparedness. Tsunami Evacuation might be recognizable as a potential life saving device or mechanism, yet it is slightly ill-fitting to the task it alludes to. The cart is not one to carry my belongings to safety, instead it is a metaphor for home and the care, strength, effort, and physical exertion required at times to maintain a sense of security.

Details (expanded):
Tsunami Evacuation Cart is engineered to relate to the utilitarian dockcarts at the harbor that move between land and water, traversing the path between boat and dock. Tsunami Evacuation Cart maneuvers on land yet is also equipped with floatation devices. It is a tool in which I explore what it is like to live in an area under tsunami threat, engaging in “test-runs” and “test-floats” as part of disaster preparedness. Tsunami Evacuation might be recognizable as a potential life saving device or mechanism. Yet for me the cart is not one to carry my belongings to safety, instead it is a metaphor for home and the care, strength, effort, and physical exertion required at times to maintain a sense of security.

Tsunami Evacuation is a tool in which I explore the fragile, tenuous notion of safety and a potentially false sense of security that may be associated within the structure of a house both physically and metaphorically. Within this work is acknowledgment that physical strength and stamina might not, will most likely not be able to rescue me. Tsunami Evacuation is slightly ill-fitting to the task it alludes to. I embrace this oddity, and within the ridiculous nature of this work is my struggle to find ways to exist in a place that might be continually under threat. My conversation through Tsunami Evacuation begins as specific to the coast but through this it is my hope to also speak about general, potentially universal survival mechanisms that humans might use to get through hard times or live in a place of fear.

As an artist spending time in this place I acknowledge and pay respect toward the Chinook, Lower Chinook and Willapa and honor them as the historical owners of this land.