Sterling Highway

Sterling Highway is an hour and a half stretch of two-lane road along the Cook Inlet of Alaska. It was the last stretch of the drive between Eagle River and Homer that my dad would take my family on during his days off work. On one side of the road was Cook Inlet, a body of water wide enough that you cannot see the other side. On the other side of the road was the base of the Kenai Mountains draped in rockfall netting.

As a child, the drive between my hometown of Eagle River and Homer, and especially the final hour and a half on the Sterling Highway, felt like an eternity. In this installation, I simulate this road trip through fabricated walls, projected video, and ambient sound. The viewer can experience the silent claustrophobia of this fabricated landscape, then listen to my thoughts about this drive as a metaphor of my childhood through the provided headphones.