Yellow Railroad Buffer Stop (2020)

Sculpture, acrylic paint on plaster on wood frame.

If the brakes go out, if all other systems fail, at the end of a railroad line is a buffer stop to stop a train from rolling off the end of a track.
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I use the buffer stop as a symbol for a safety structure in place for the event of a complex system not working as it’s designed to. These structures are used as a last line of defense against a system out of control, and when they are used, the result can be messy. When a person sees a buffer stop at the end of a railroad line, it is a reminder that all systems, even those as rigorously engineered and reliably used as railroads, are vulnerable to failure.
February 4, 2020