Geocultural Window

Materials | Wood, paint, found objects / trash, etched glass, cinderblocks, salvaged grass, sand, basalt, snake skin, gords

​Date | 2010

The geocultural window is a play on words, taking from the phrase geological window and combining it with the cultural  constructions that have occured on top of the geological past.  A geological window is a natural phenomenon where layers of geological past are exposed like a window into time.  

This installation was created in Albuquerque and reflects the layers of history beginning with the geology that gives form to the space around the Petroglyph National Monument where suburban developments back up to old lava flows from ancient volcanoes that were etched over the years by the indigenous peoples who inhabited the landscape.

On one side of the fence, there are petroglyphs facing the rising sun to the east over the Sandia Mountains that have been treated like a shooting range for old bottles and cans.  The other side of the fence are the suburbs with there cinderblock walls, green grass, and houses that are not ecologically designed and built in response to the land, sun, or water.  

​This sculpture represents all that is visible within the geocultural window of time visible from backyards of suburbia.