On the MS coast, there are tons of tree and other debris, some from centuries old oaks and magnolias, some from residences, all presumably destined for the burn heap.
But we are holding onto what we can. One idea that came to me was to get nature conceptual artists like Andy Goldsworthy to salvage some of this stuff and put it back in the public domain as works of art and tribute. I was thinking in particular of the stretch of centuries-old oaks along Highway 90 sawed down by our cement-headed highway contractors. Imagine what a mind with the imagination of an Alexander Calder and the knack for materials of Goldsworthy could fashion out of these enormous twisting shapes.
The other thought I had was to see what happened to the girders forming Biloxi's latest public art work, the Frank Gehry designed George Ohr Museum. Ohr, for those who don't know, was a Victorian era eccentric potter who was discovered nationally in the 1970s-80s, and whose impossibly thin shapes collapsed like drapes echoing Gehry's more exuberant buildings. So Gehry designed this museum and it was partly under way when the storm hit. My understanding is that a casino barge slammed into one of the buildings. I wonder what Ohr or Gehry would make of it. I could easily see either of them saying, hell leave it that way, don't straighten out that girder, we want people to understand what a storm can do. Besides, I kinda like that shape.
Anyway, the point of these little ramblings is to throw out the possibility that there are other things to do besides burn up some of this hurricane debris, and to open the idea up to some responses from the art community. What would artistic Kossacks do with this rubble?