J.W. Powell & Associates

Printed Real Estae Signs For Various Yard Locations, AZ & NM 2013 +

J.W. Powell & Associates is a real estate installation. It includes an installed printed sign designed to look like a real estate sign that reads J.W. Powell & Associates, Reality Group, Land and Resource Speculation, Phone number (currently inactive). The sign is situated on property the way a real estate sign might be installed, giving the illusion that the property might be for sale or lease. If an interested person calls the phone number on the sign, a standard voice message is replaced by a 60 second reading from an unknown person who shares a quote or excerpt from story or book which addresses environmental concerns around water and urban development in the American West.  At the end of thereading, the caller may leave a message of their own, which will be archived in the form of an audio file and a transcribed email.  

J.W. Powell & Associates is a reference to Major John Wesley Powell, the one armed civil war vet who successfully led the first group of nine men down an uncharted Colorado River through the Grand Canyon in 1869.  Major Powell had a deep understanding of the arid American west, having travelled through it extensively during his lifetime.  Despite his respected considerations of the region about limited natural resources like the Colorado River, his influence with the federal government was small in terms of urban growth and development policies that shaped the west, as we know it.  The Associates refers to any number of environmental advocates who’ve come into public consciousness since the era of John Wesley Powell.  One example of the voice recording I provided was a reading that came from Edward Abbey, an American writer who gained prominence throughout the 1960’s and 70’s, most known for his advocacy for environmental issues.