ABSTRACT
In 2011, the Museum of Arts and Design (MAD) in New York City invited Margaret Boozer to participate in an exhibition titled Swept Away: Ashes, Dirt, and Dust in Contemporary Art and Design, and specifically requested that she construct the work using New York City soil. As an artist, Boozer had long been interested in soil and its ability to capture the historical record, both geologically and anthropologically, so the request itself was wholly within her methodology. The challenge she faced was simply that she knew nothing about the city's soil. In order to create the most powerful artwork possible, she wanted to understand more about it. Through her network of soil scientist colleagues in Washington, DC, she met Dr. Richard Shaw, the lead scientist on the then recently completed New York City Soil Survey. He agreed to help collaborate.
