EVENT: Salt Mine Photographs at Salt Pile
STATEN ISLAND, NEW YORK, November 16, 2006
Photographs by Michael Falco from the Noble Maritime Collection’s exhibition Salt Mountain are being installed, enlarged to billboard size, on the facade of Atlantic Salt Company, 561 Richmond Terrace, Staten Island.
The museum invites the public to view the installation on site at a doughnut and cider reception on Monday, December 11 from 3 until 5 PM at Geraldi’s outdoor market, adjacent, to the salt pile.
The installation was conceived and designed by architecture and urban planning consultant to industry, Daniel Adams, a Druker Research Fellow of
Harvard University. It is part of Adams’ long term project to develop new ways of integrating large-scale industry into local community environments.
The installation is funded by Eastern Minerals Inc., the parent company of Atlantic Salt.
Falco traveled to Kilroot Salt Mine in Carrickfergus, Northern Ireland, where the company’s salt mines are located, to photograph the interior of the mine and the miners.
The installation includes three photographs and a credits banner. It will be completed by December 10, 2006.
The museum invites the public to view the installation on site at a doughnut and cider reception on Monday, December 11 from 3 until 5 PM at Geraldi’s Fruit Stand, adjacent to the salt pile.
Under the supervision of Joseph Casey, foreman of Atlantic Salt, Adams is positioning three views of the mine interior by Falco, and a large banner
explaining the project, Mining Salt, on the side of the former US Gypsum plant at 561 Richmond Terrace, Staten Island.
Atlantic Salt is currently engaged in a major rehabilitation of the site. Having removed the huge silos built for gypsum, Casey is now demolishing six of the nine buildings that once housed the extensive US Gypsum operation to make way for a new wharf and storage areas to which Atlantic Salt will relocate its entire New York/New Jersey operation.
The installation on Richmond Terrace is part of the Noble Maritime Collection’s effort to raise people’s awareness of the waterfront and the maritime industry.
The Noble Maritime Collection’s exhibition, Salt Mountain, accentuates the positive nature of the global industry on Staten Island, educates people about where salt comes from, and calls attention to the site and its development. The exhibition explores the substance of salt, its harvesting, distribution, and uses.
A museum and a study center devoted to New York arbor’s maritime life, the Noble Maritime Collection is planning a series of events including a waterfront conference to be held in February 2007.
Daniel Adams is engaged in a two-year fellowship researching the globalization of industry and its influence on local communities. Using large-scale art installations, his work is designed to create new relationships between industries and the local communities.
Michael Falco is a freelance photographer who works for a number of publications including the New York Times, W Magazine, British Vogue, Garden Design, Harper’s Bazaar, the Staten Island Advance, and Art & Antiques. Selected by the NYC Arts Commission, he is working on a ten by twenty-eight foot glass panel photographic mural for the new Staten Island Ferry Terminal in St. George.
Museum hours at the Noble Maritime Collection are Thursday through Sunday from one until five PM, or by appointment. Admission is $5.00 for adults, $3.00 for seniors, educators, and students, and free to members and children 10 years and younger. Group tours are available.
For more information, call the museum at 718-447-6490.
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