Flood Victims
- MAKER:
Artist
Alexandre Hogue ( American, 1898 - 1994 )
- DATE:
- 1944
General Description
While not specifically designated as part of the Erosion Series, Flood Victims frames two living animals within a different environmental crisis. Instead of suffering in a desertlike landscape, they are threatened by a flood. Above the rushing flood waters, a rattlesnake and squirrel cling to a broken branch. The squirrel, trapped between the water and the snake, seems frozen with shock, yet the reptile is oblivious to the easy meal. Tightly knotted around the tree, the snake stares down at the immediate threat of the rising water. Although normally enemies, they are temporarily aligned in a mutual desire for survival. Hogue cleverly uses these despised creatures to elicit sympathy from us, illustrating that all living beings are affected by the extremes of the environment.
Excerpt from
Sue Canterbury, Alexandre Hogue: The Erosion Series, Label text, 2014.