Among the yuckiest fears of urban victims of superstorm Sandy was the potential for all that sea water surging into subway and sewer tunnels to displace the millions of rats who call the underground their home.
While the wood in the study was placed there by scientists, wood naturally finds its way into the ocean as dead trees fall into rivers and are swept out to sea, when storm debris is taken by surging waters and even from shipwrecks.
The haunting effect of Ensor's sea of masked figures, who cascade toward us on a surging, endless tide, is due in part, as the art historian Patricia Berman has described, to the collapsing perspectives and multiple viewpoints the artist employed to create a sense of chaos.