Description:
Recollection is a hand‑cut silhouette of a Peruvian pepper tree, Schinus molle, rendered in the style of an herbarium plant pressing, surrounded by a wall‑sized narrative of the plant’s journey to California and its capricious experience once it settled into the landscape.
Wall text:
I remember the place of my ancestors: it is where gold drove men mad. The same bullion-hungry men brought me with them when they founded a new El Dorado. In both lands, they brought their god to conquer the people. In both lands, they took the secrets of the earth to feed their ruler. They took me because they knew I would make a good subject. I helped them lay their claim. I was a messenger for the ranks of their advancing legion, reaching out like arms to embrace the land, I was their notice to spread wide, allowing their fingers to find their grip. They prized me as a symbol of power and beauty. My family branched out, lining the streets, signaling to everyone the permanence of our fragrant position.
Crowns weigh heavily, however. A new power—another offering for the divine, a different servant—was brought in to satisfy the latest overseer. Driving towards a sunset down a boulevard of the same name, I watched from the back of a truck as the next symbol for this age was planted. I was left to muse on the day's fashion. The people have outgrown my intricate lattice in favor of clean lines that do not disrupt the edges of their new temples of commerce, an ouroboros of the divine and gluttonous glimmer. That spindly stemmed neophyte with its topping of quixotic fronds bears the fantasies of millions and is already snapping with the dawn of the new millennium. A fanciful emblem that leaves all below defenseless against the sun.
I wonder from my abused station, "Who else will they take up and fling off in the next turn of fortune’s wheel?"
Title:
Blacklisted: A Planted Allegory (Recollection)
Year:
2015
Media:
Wall text: Graphite
Frame: Painted steel, plexiglass, MDF, hardboard,
brass, assorted paper, hand‑cut silhouettes
Dimensions:
Wall text: 136” x 80”
Frame: 25” x 20” x 1.5”
