“An Insurable Disaster” was a time-based, participatory installation where I tried to create a tower of boxes reaching the height of a four story house. Over the course of 24 hours, a number of volunteers and I created the first story of the tower, raised it and anchored it, then after the wind blew it down, repeated the process to add on the next story of the house.

The installation consisted of a series of household inventories required by insurance companies for loss or damage claims, chandeliers made from household items, a series of painted on family portraits, stained sugar glass, boxes, twine, stakes, and other construction materials. Each item in the collected household inventories was written on the boxes. The design and implementation of the box tower was a collaborative process.

Our New Off Paper Image: An Insurable Disaster from Eric John Olson.