"Wilderness Replication #3

3'X2"X5'

Artificial Wind, Computers, A stolen branch from Federal Land in Long Beach California

2014

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Wilderness replication #3 is part of a series that is the result of noticing the blurred distinction between land that is considered wilderness and land that is thought of as developed.  On walks through Long Beach California, I began decontextualizing elements from those landscapes to compare with places that were thought of as untouched by human influence.  This branch was stolen by me from a piece of federal land near to where I lived because on it’s own, it very closely resembled any of the wild places outside of the city that I’d been hiking.  I started to think about these elements as charged material that possessed the ability to transport a person from one place to another as they viewed it.  

 

Inside the acrylic vitrine, I’ve arranged the stolen branch in such a way as to resemble its orientation on the tree it came from.  Computers control fans that create heavy gusts of wind, that flow through the box from one side to another and back through the center.  These gusts die down in the same inconsistent way that wind does, creating moments when the branch blows and moments when the bristles cease to move, just as they would in the wild. 

 

My hope is that an object like this reminds the viewer of one of their personal memories associated with place and in doing so, to transport them from one place to another.