Flow is a site-specific installation by Parisian artist Baptiste Debombourg that invites visitors to walk on its “waves” of shattered and repurposed windshields. Similar to his Aerial installation, the shimmering and overwhelming visual experience of the piece presents the artist's recurring fascination with an apocalyptic flood reclaiming manmade architecture.
There is both a beautiful and frightening quality to Debombourg's spacial art. It is a glimmering spectacle of glass that represents a suffocating nightmare. The piece's press release reads: “Here the windshields surge up like the wave that engulfs towns in catastrophic films such as 2012 or The Day After Tomorrow. They are broken, discarded, ignored objects that take the place by storm, rebel and attack us.”
At the same time, Debombourg creates a parallel between the surreal depiction and mankind's own neglect for the environment. The hundreds upon hundreds of windshields are reflective of overconsumption while the imagery of an endless flood overtaking a room is an interpretation of impending environmental doom at the hand of mankind. Additionally, the alternative title for the piece is The Cry of the Leviathan, and the flows of water encompassing the room inhabited by visitors suggests that humans are now the actual monsters of the sea.
