14 Plots (Spill File No. 0650898)

14 Plots (Spill File No. 0650898), (2019)

14 Plots (Spill File No. 0650898) is a site-specific installation which memorializes the environmental legacy of a brownfield site at 62-64 Scio Street in Rochester, NY. On August 31, 2006, an oil leak was discovered during the removal of a 2,000 gallon underground storage tank at the southeast corner this site. Over 30 tons of grossly contaminated soil was removed from the surrounding area, and 14 test borings (TB–1 to TB–14) were taken throughout the lot to assess the scale of contamination on the site. Remediation efforts have been conducted over the past decade, and the city of Rochester is currently soliciting proposals for redeveloping this land.

Collected from the nearby Inner-Loop fill site, the surfaces of these fragments were meticulously polished using a traditional lithographic process called levigating, and then etched with the 2006 environmental contamination study reports. Each of these monuments were buried at the exact locations of the 14 sample plots - connecting these environmental data points to a very specific place and soil. Here, plot can be read two ways: as cold data points marking specific chemical compounds, or as something more bodily, like gravestones marking the chemical memory of the site. Radiating from the source of the original leak, the geography of these monuments tells the story of the land's contamination, at a time when it is considered for commercial speculation.

Image detail: TB-9 (Installation View, 62-64 Scio Street), laser-etched granite, 2019.

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Map from Underground Storage Tank Closure and Limited Subsurface Study Report, 64-64 Scio Street, Rochester, New York (p. 13)

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Levigation process at 62-64 Scio Street

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TB-1 (Photo: Marc Newton)

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TB-5 (Photo: Marc Newton)

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TB-10 (Installation View, 62-64 Scio St.)

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