“I-12: Roadkill Retribution, Weapons of Waste” is an elegiac, cautionary story of the lack of accountability and the discardment of tire pieces and Louisiana wildlife. Accidental waste (man-made and not) is still waste. Tires take decades to fully decompose, and roadkill is so close to the border that very few animals, if any, are able to feed from it. The hot asphalt broils their bodies and prevents any nutrients into the soil. The traditional cycle of life is broken, and a man-made one is born.

 

This narrative shows the birthing of The Beast. It is born from our community’s man-made remnants of pain and waste, tire pieces. They are the lasting witnesses to the creature's existence. The kindred, abandoned spirits, are bonded by their blatant discardment.

 

 

Broken, the tires rebuild themselves in what’s left of that creature's image. It could be the desire to have a form again or perhaps a tribute and remorse for the life they took. A tribute to the small creatures' life, however, a homage does not bring change.

 

Tires and roadkill continue crowding the border. A whimper and scream of a struck animal is suppressed by the infinite swishing of the herd of bright-eyed predators. The decrepit, southern, tire-made prey come together forming The Beast. Will we continue to let pieces accumulate on the border? When will the beast have enough pieces to break away from the never-ending cycle of waste and death?