Two Cabins

Between July 2007 and June 2008 veteran independent filmmakerJames Benning built replicas of two iconic American Cabins in a remote part of the High Sierras Henry David Thoreaus hut from Walden Pond and the oneroom plywood shack in rural Montana from which Theodore John Kaczynski the Unabomber conducted his 16year bombing campaign via the US mail The juxtaposition of these two simple structures invokes and implicates deeply conflicted and enduring foundational American myths concerning the scope and meaning of personal liberty civic responsibility and the rule of law individual conscience democracy and civil disobedience the transcendental value of nature wilderness and the godgiven right to exploit natural resources American exceptionalism environmental conservationism and faith in technological progress the imperative to make oneself anew to succeed and if necessary to secede