bas-relief
2016 Collaboration with kerry davis
Bas-Relief Stratum 68 x 155 x 8”
Bas-Relief casts photograms and found objects in concrete to become a present-day ruin and late-capitalist artifact. As much dirge as outcry, it excavates a contemporary geo-eco-political narrative through layers of state-sanctioned violence and a planet under the gun.
Following a through line from imperialism to torture, terrorism and the acceptance of violence on the street, Bas-Relief also bears witness to the environmental crisis brought on by global consumer culture, commodification of the planet and perpetual resource wars.
Architectural relief carvings of stone and other materials have historically related epic cultural narratives. Bas-Relief utilizes cement—the building block of empires—as both form and function. It stills the information frenzy, concretizes our contemporary catastrophic narrative and embodies the weight of our collective grief and rage. As an anticipatory ruin, the project contains elements of our current epoch, the Anthropocene. Millions of years hence, researchers may well identify the epoch by such markers as radioactive material, plastic and chicken bones.
Bas-Relief is what may be buried in the future. By looking at what is/was, we can index the decline of the empire and see the imprint of our own steps as we lay ruin to Earth and each other.
Limited edition catalogue featuring images and the essay poem, Held through the Holes: A Small Encyclopedia by Kaia Sand and Allison Cobb.