Stephen Mallon

This photograph, from Stephen Mallon’s solo exhibition The Reefing of USS Radford, is part of the artist’s American Reclamation series, which chronicles and examines the American recycling industry, in this case a Spruance-class destroyer in the United States Navy repurposed to create an artificial reef. The USS Arthur W. Radford (DD-968) was named for Admiral Arthur W. Radford USN (1896–1973). It was decommissioned on March 18, 2003, after 26 years in service, and on August 10, 2011, became part of the DelJerseyLand Reef through the Delaware Reef Program, which aims to help depleted or endangered fisheries. Mallon explains: “My American Reclamation series chronicles the beauty of industrial recycling in the United States. In 2010, the USS Radford, a former Naval Spruance destroyer became the longest vessel to be reefed in the Atlantic Ocean. Its final mission serves to create a habitat for marine life and a discovery site for divers.”