What Lies Beneath draws on J.A. Brooks’ glass plate negatives depicting open mines and, incidentally, the surrounding vegetation. The piece engages with history while also invoking deep time through forms that resemble geological strata. It recalls an ancient relief sculpture that might be found at the entrance to a temple. The forms evoke a sense of otherness, as if they are remnants emerging from the ground beneath our feet. Conjuring multiple temporalities, the work provokes layered reflections on the earth, flora, and symbolic systems of signs. It exists as an incomplete puzzle, a fractured frieze with missing elements, a modular structure that suggests an ever-changing landscape and matter unfolding across temporal thresholds.
