Bill Amundson

The Tower of Babel story has been lurking on the outskirts of my subconscious since my Sunday school days at Central Lutheran Church in Stoughton, Wisconsin. The details of the story were always sketchy, but the visuals and pure drama involved always engaged my imagination: one language and a unity of mankind leading folks away from God, an amazing tower right out of Bruckheimer, a narcissistic patsy who nicely lived up to his name (Nimrod) and a destructive, smoting old testament God on a vengeful rampage to assure humans they would forever have trouble with their communications skills. It seemed to have a lot a parallels to today’s “flat world” of Tom Friedman and call centers and globalization as well as the complete cultural misunderstandings that the inhabitants of the planet still encounter on a daily basis. Plus a lot of artists I’ve admired have tackled the subject over the years. So I made myself a highly subjective contemporary version of the tower. I call it “Bill Amundson’s New Babel” rather than just “New Babel” to punch the title up a bit, Hollywood style. I’ve also included a video of me prattling on about the piece, if you’re so inclined to have that experience.