Max Spitzer‘s work “Niagra Can Stop” is part of the group exhibition “Teachable Moment,” on view at Stove Works in Chattanooga, TN, opening December 18.
“Niagara Can Stop” is an ongoing research and sculpture project. It began when Spitzer received an email from his father telling him that his great-great-grandparents’ gravestones had eroded and were going to be replicated and replaced: did he want the originals? Accepting responsibility for the gravestones lead to repeated visits to their burial site. That small cemetery sits right next to the hydroelectric generating plant and accompanying reservoir which divert water from Niagara Falls, providing power to the region. High voltage power lines, carrying electricity converted from that Niagara water, buzz right above the rows of gravestones. The project’s title, “Niagara Can Stop,” takes its name from this power plant’s (along with its sibling on the Canadian side’s) purported infrastructural ability to divert 100% of the water from above Niagara Falls, ending the iconic tumult of the falls.
