I began carving these flat relief forms in the January of 2023 from found planks of various species of wood that I planed, sanded, cut and glued together. This pair was produced from a vector drawing made from layer upon layers of found photographs of Hopewell Mounds located in present day Ohio.
As I worked with these silhouettes, I became interested in how individual tourists took what was essentially the same photo of many of these sites. Without additional, textual explanations, these mound silhouettes might look to many like naturally occurring forms, hidden in plain sight. The specific shapes of these landmarks were fetishized by those, including myself, seeking to capture the moment, however the actual sites have changed considerable over thousands of years. I became interested in the relationship between the lines these forms produced against their landscapes today and the imagined aura these spaces continue to exert in viewers’ minds.
The forms in the artworks on the right are a mirrored inversion of the artwork on the left. Each piece of wood is digitally carved to a precise size and then attached to its’ neighbor, with a final result resembling wood marquetry. Each finished piece is offset from the wall behind it by about 1/2″, which casts a nice smooth shadow behind each piece.
Moundscape (light and dark), 2023, 20″ x 20.5″ x 1.5″ each, 2 panels, mixed found wood
species. Layered traced vector silhouettes of Hopewell mounds. Layering material and precise geometric forms characterize these sculptures, which involve cutting, stacking, and laminating layers of various types of wood (found hardwoods, pine, maple plywood, etc.,).