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Experimentum

Experimentum

Medium
Archival paper and glue, book cloth

Dimensions
Open: 11.2″ x 10.75″ x .125″
Closed: 3.75″ x 4.25″ x .25″

Year Completed
2022

Description
This piece marvels at the loftiness of a 17th-century European polymath’s mind while standing grounded in quotidian Oakland. Half the pages are letterpress printed images from Kircher’s Mundus Subterraneus & the other photographs of water utility access covers. Edition of 10. Variable dimensions.

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Experimentum marvels at the loftiness of a 17th-century European polymath’s mind whilst being grounded in Oakland’s quotidian.

Each hexagonal page has a photograph of an East Bay MUD (Municipal Utility District) water access cover from my neighborhood in Oakland. The other side has a letterpress printed image from Mundus Subterraneus. Kircher’s 1665 diagrams and Latin text record his understanding of the forces of nature seething beneath the earth’s surface; the artist’s photos capture a sliver of the membrane between her and the unseen.