Flight Formation
Digital Collage and Print transfer on Driftwood, 2017
B-17 fighter planes in Bombing Box formation, cackling geese in V-formation
20.5" x 9.5" x 1.75"
Attu is the westernmost island of the 1100 mile long Aleutian Chain. The island is geographically closer, and the vegetation more similar, to the Kamchatka peninsula of Russia than the Alaskan peninsula. More than 40% of all breeding seabirds in the US inhabit the Aleutian and Bering Sea region. Attu, and most of the Aleutians, is part of the Alaska Maritime Wildlife Refuge.
There are no mammals or trees on Attu. On the eastern side of the island, birds occupy a landscape of military remains, nesting on ground scarred by bomb craters, foxholes and trenches. Prior to the World War II land battle on Attu, the island was assaulted from the sky for months. In one single 12-hour period (April 15, 1943) the Eleventh Air Force dropped 184,000 pounds of bombs on Attu and Kiska combined.
