Empyrean Fields (2019 - 20) is a series of ten large format photographs made with the assistance of a view camera. Ten 3D digital composite images, not depicted on this platform, are also included in the larger project. Stemming from the Accumulations project and the continued exploration of the Mojave Desert, the ten large scale photographs result from viewing upward into the interiors of the domes that line charcoal kilns constructed in the 1870’s for the purposes of transforming locally harvested piñon pines into coal in order to power a nearby silver-lead ore mine that was managed by the Modock Consolidated Mining Company.
Drawing a distinction from historic uses of the dome and the various ways in which transcendental imagery adorns them, these architectural interiors compound the celestial with the terrestrial, the heavens with the underground. These specific domes were constructed in service of metallurgy rather than in the service of the clergy, materializing the concept of American Manifest Destiny.
(E)
I
2019/20
carbon inkjet print
II
2019/20
carbon inkjet print
III
2019/20
carbon inkjet print
IV
2019/20
carbon inkjet print
V
2019/20
carbon inkjet print
VI
2019/20
carbon inkjet print
VII
2019/20
carbon inkjet print
VIII
2019/20
carbon inkjet print
IX
2019/20
carbon inkjet print
X
2019/20
carbon inkjet print
(W)