Column 9: Moulin
Aside from what is visible in the photography, this piece includes two other elements: moving water and noise. A small stream of water emerges from the stainless and falls without splashing onto the rocks. As it descends, it shimmers and drips over the stones, which are conglomerates from my property in northern Nova Scotia.
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When wet, they exhibit extraordinary reds, grays, greens, and other colors. The slight dripping noise is magnified by the metal, which also creates a mysterious echoing tone. The piece is entirely self contained: a concealed pump recirculates the water.
As with all members of series Piesterion, this piece relates to ice cores, ripe with information, that are drilled from ice caps, glaciers, and sheets. This piece additionally addresses the phenomenon of the moulin.
A moulin– French for ‘mill’– is a vertical channel in an ice formation down which surface meltwater finds its way to the substrate beneath. These can be of many scales, from raging torrents to minuscule trickles. On occasion, sediments can be swept into these channels to be temporarily imprisoned.
Metaphorically, beyond those general to all ‘Piesterions’, concepts of decay and capture figure here.