The formgiving forces enthroned on earth, while the growing metals make music in the cave (2019-2023)
In 2019, I excavated these “float copper” fragments from the tailing piles of North America’s oldest copper mines in the Keweenaw Peninsula, Michigan. Copper has been extracted from this region for nearly 9500 years, beginning only a short time after Lake Superior itself was formed from the receding ice.
After scouring the tailing piles with a metal detector to locate rocks with trace amounts of copper, I ground and polished these mine tailings to expose the copper hidden within - creating naturally formed etching plates. Finally I etched into their surface engravings from Athanasius Kircher’s 1665 geological textbook Mundus Subterraneus, which took a critical stance on the practices of alchemists, while embracing their beliefs regarding the creation of metals and other geological formations within the natural world.
Through these rituals, I situate the printmaking matrix as akin to a fossilized record, and seek to use the etching process to compress historical and geological time; connecting the threads of our legacy of extraction to the dystopian but perhaps inevitable climate-engineering solutions on our horizon.
Image: The formgiving forces enthroned on earth, while the growing metals make music in the cave (sample no. 1), polished and etched float copper (excavated from Cliff Mine tailing piles, Keweenaw Peninsula), 2020.
The formgiving forces enthroned on earth, while the growing metals make music in the cave was produced at Rabbit Island and Frans Masereel Centrum through the generous support of Canada Council for the Arts
Excavating “float copper” fragments from tailing piles at Cliff Mine (Keweenaw Peninsula, Michigan) in 2019. North America’s oldest known copper extraction site, this region has been mined for 9500 years.
Copper fragments excavated at Cliff Mine tailing piles (excavated 2019)
Installation view: We will find salvation in strategic chemical spills, Galleria Ratamo, Jyväskylä, Finland, 2023
Detail: Rosemary Duffy Larson Gallery, 2023.
The formgiving forces enthroned on earth, while the growing metals make music in the cave (sample No. 4), polished and etched float copper (excavated from tailing piles at Cliff Mines, Keweenaw Peninsula, MI), 2020.
The formgiving forces enthroned on earth, while the growing metals make music in the cave (sample no. 15), polished and etched float copper (excavated from Cliff Mine tailing piles, Keweenaw Peninsula), 2022.
The formgiving forces enthroned on earth, while the growing metals make music in the cave (sample no. 13), polished and etched float copper (excavated from Cliff Mine tailing piles, Keweenaw Peninsula), 2022.
The formgiving forces enthroned on earth, while the growing metals make music in the cave (sample no. 12), polished and etched float copper (excavated from Cliff Mine tailing piles, Keweenaw Peninsula), 2022.
The formgiving forces enthroned on earth, while the growing metals make music in the cave (sample no. 11), polished and etched float copper (excavated from Cliff Mine tailing piles, Keweenaw Peninsula), 2022.
The formgiving forces enthroned on earth, while the growing metals make music in the cave (sample no. 16), polished and etched float copper (excavated from Cliff Mine tailing piles, Keweenaw Peninsula), 2023.
The formgiving forces enthroned on earth, while the growing metals make music in the cave (sample no. 10), polished and etched float copper (excavated from Cliff Mine tailing piles, Keweenaw Peninsula), 2022.
The formgiving forces enthroned on earth, while the growing metals make music in the cave (sample no. 2), polished and etched float copper (excavated from Cliff Mine tailing piles, Keweenaw Peninsula), 2020.
The formgiving forces enthroned on earth, while the growing metals make music in the cave (sample no. 8), polished and etched float copper (excavated from Cliff Mine tailing piles, Keweenaw Peninsula), 2021.
The formgiving forces enthroned on earth, while the growing metals make music in the cave (sample no. 3), polished and etched float copper (excavated from Cliff Mine tailing piles, Keweenaw Peninsula), 2020.
The formgiving forces enthroned on earth, while the growing metals make music in the cave (sample no. 6), polished and etched float copper (excavated from Cliff Mine tailing piles, Keweenaw Peninsula), 2021.
The formgiving forces enthroned on earth, while the growing metals make music in the cave (sample no. 5), polished and etched float copper (excavated from Cliff Mine tailing piles, Keweenaw Peninsula), 2021.
The formgiving forces enthroned on earth, while the growing metals make music in the cave (sample no. 1), Installation View: Krakow International Print Triennial