Life and Death at the Steel Mill /  by Eric Etheridge

I am currently editing my interviews from Steelton for the soundtrack that will play from inside the Cocoon at the procession and lighting in August. Here’s a short excerpt from one of those interviews, with a steelworker, about issues of health and safety, life and death, at the mill.

Cocoon Steelton: The Migrations of Many occurs on the evening of Thursday, August 31st, in Steelton, PA. The Lights of Origin Procession begins at 7 PM at the bottom of the Locust Street Staircase. The Illumination of the Cocoon follows the end of the march, in a lot on Front Street, across from the steel mill.

Illuminating Migrations - Lights of Origin Procession /  by Eric Etheridge

These photos capture the brainstorming and placement of lights once the procession has reached the Cocoon. These lights represent the migrations of people and their stories within the community at their new established home in Steelton. The procession and the lights embody both celebration and mourning. Celebrating the safety and comfort in finding a new home as well as mourning a home that no longer exists.

Idea at the start of an art work /  by Eric Etheridge

Cocoon Steelton: The Migrations of Many 2019-2023

On top of my drawing: Card from the Ellis Island archives. People walking down the Steelton hill to the steel mill carrying lights.

The drawing above was the beginning in 2019, an idea at the start of the Steelton artwork that is now coming to fruition over several years of interviewing people in Steelton and the steel mill.

From the late 1800’s on people migrated to Steelton to work in the steel mill. They came from Europe and the American South.

“St. Rocco, Croatia”

“The mountain ridges between Charlotte and Charlottesville”

I wanted to find a way to show this migration visually in my artwork during the procession. These places go as far back as people know or can remember. To illuminate an individual’s place(s) lived is showing history, and in a group it becomes the town and mill’s existence.

EVENT DATE

Cocoon Steelton : The Migrations of Many procession and illumination in Steelton, PA is August 31 at sunset honoring upcoming Labor Day.

Find details about this event here

../ more to come

Projection Workshop for Migrations of Many /  by Eric Etheridge

Here, Martial Buisson and I tested different surfaces for projecting Eric Etheridge’s formal portraits in Steelton, PA. This will happen in September 2023 as part of the night when my Cocoon Steelton The Migrations of Many is illuminated. In Steelton my hope is these portraits will be projected on a large working steel building. We didn’t have a building that size this summer. We had pine and maple trees. The formal portraits will project smoother on a building. This was part of last summer’s workshops.

Pine Tree Surface

The new-used projector

Maple Tree Surface