Roadside Azaleas
Installation
2024

Roadside Azaleas was a video installation that consisted of a crashed car, projection, and sound. Viewers were invited to sit in the front seat of the car, which triggered the car to "turn on," making sound and playing a video. The name is derived from Allison Cummings’ poem, American Roadkill, for the way azaleas are planted along the sides of the roads for low maintenance beautification. Cummings describes the red azaleas blending with the blood of roadkill; both flower and roadkill planted along the road by humans.

The installation highlights the lines, attunement, and hierarchy of human-made pathways such as roads, sidewalks, and trails. Animals have the wonderful quality of ignoring private property; they radically jaywalk, defying our human laws and authority over the natural world in splendor. However, this is not without consequence. Roadside Azaleas uses the choices and hierarchies that comprise American infrastructure and driving culture as a foundation to discuss how we rank and treat others, the difficult choices we must weigh when restructuring our world, and who gets lost along the way.

Photo Credit: Alex Nichols

Hailey Becker

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