North Carolina 2011 is part of Monica Bonvicini’s series of works that reference the impressive media coverage surrounding destruction caused by natural catastrophes, such as hurricane Katrina, the storm that devastated New Orleans in 2005. Bonvicini employs the spectacular stream of images documenting disaster to elaborate on her long-standing fascination with architecture as an embodiment and instrument of existing power structures. The works are both representative of natural catastrophes, as well as a reflection on urban environments as places of segregation. All the more relevant in a time where the inevitability of a climate crisis has become painfully acute, these works speak on the way architecture functions as a mirror of society an indicator of shifting economic demography.

The photographic source material is skilfully rendered in hazy spray paint and tempera that oozes down the surface of the paper in thick streams, emphasizing a pervasive feeling of doom throughout the body of work. The series can be seen in lineage of canonical works of contemporary art, such as Dan Graham’s photo series Homes for America (1966-67). In Bonvicini’s case architecture confronts important feminist tropes related to power, labor and the urban environment that are inevitably linked to the collective and individual formation of identity both in the public and private spheres. The artist has stated: “What has interested me for a long time is the fact that architecture always has, in some way, gendered connotations”, and “Home is the place where the first sense of identity is formed. Home is always about memory, too.”