Suparak_Syracuse-Mountains_mitt-chart-visitor — A small visitor comparing her height to the “Syracuse Mountains” in the exhibition Embracing Winter. Photograph by Duke and Battersby.

Installation image of “Syracuse Mountains”. Photo by by Elizabeth Gorfaine.

Visitors taking samples of the free deicer in “Syracuse Mountains.” Photo by Dan.

“Syracuse Mountains and “In advance of snow” by Astria Suparak and Frank Olive. Photo by Elizabeth Gorfaine.

Visitors taking samples of the free deicer in “Syracuse Mountains.” Photo by Dan.

SYRACUSE MOUNTAINS

Astria Suparak with Frank Olive
Paint, vinyl, solid calcium magnesium acetate (CMA), metal scoops, plastic bags, approximately 19 x 30 x 21 feet
2007
https://bit.ly/syracuse-mountains

Created for the city of Syracuse, the perennial winner of the Golden Snowball Award for the most snowfall in New York State, this interactive project was composed of two parts:

A full-scale graph charting the snowfall in Syracuse over the last half century, creating a painted “mountain range” mural (or a row of icicles) that visitors could compare their heights against. Years in vinyl numbers marked the graph’s x-axis along the floor, and a printed list of snowfall statistics was available as a handout in the gallery and online.
Two mounds of a biodegradable, low corrosive, and environmentally safer de-icer which “melted” and dwindled as winter outside progressed and visitors inside the gallery took away samples with provided scoops and bags.

This work was made to supplement the exhibition Embracing Winter (The Warehouse Gallery, Syracuse University, NY), which celebrated snow as the key to a delightful set of activities and as an ephemeral filter to make ordinary surroundings new again.