I have been working with images and diagrams of Midwestern Hopewell culture geometric geometric earthworks for several years, since moving from France to Ohio, in the United States for a year, from 2022-2023. While researching these vast sites, I discovered that many were built during the Middle Woodland Period in physical proximity to each other with an extraordinary degree of mathematical precision. Forms thousands of feet across were built at a scale where they could form complex patterns, aligning with solar and lunar rise and set points. These collective undertakings were produced by a nonhierarchical precontact Native American culture with vast trading networks but no written language. Many of these sites have been plowed over and systematically destroyed, however some are visible through teledetection and others have survived to this day.
In 2024, during a summer residency at the Eden Summer Institute curated by Sylvain Couzinet-Jacques, I collaborated with choreographer Caitlyn Schrader on temporary participatory installations with melting ice in which we wore and shared neon safety vests. The vests stayed with me and I began using them in my own surfaces and soft sculptures. This piece involved block printing directly on vests and remnants of safety apparel. The resulting forms are sliced and re-assembled into abstract compositions that both warn away from and attract attention to the sites they are inspired by.
Targets (Flags), 2025, 98 x 213 cm, 39″ x 84,” Sewn blockprinted safety vests, personal protective equipment textiles, webbing, steel rod, machine hooks.