In the Wake (detail 2)

Carbury Water Gardens, Camac River, Co. Dublin (1996)

The floating installation is constructed of thousands of wooden tongue depressors, a reference to later stories that doctors using tongue depressors boarded ships docked in quarentine to examine passengers. In years when European emigrants suffered from cholera or other contageous dieases prevelant during famine conditions, it was not recognized that such examination methods probably contributed to higher death tolls.