Shift Relic 2015

Shift Relic is a series of collaborative objects made with fungi, insects and my good friend, sculptor Matt Stone.

During my last year of High School my father was given a large batch of lumber that had been milled from a neighbor’s tree. The tree was an old Copper Beech that had fallen ill, requiring felling and removal. I helped him stack, sticker and cover the planks on pallets outside our backyard shed. Around fifteen years later during a visit to my childhood home I discovered the lumber was still there, untouched by human hands since the day of its stacking. It had however been touched by generations of fungi and insects, which colored and pierced the wood with wild spalted lines, flaming patterns and thousands of tunnels.

Some of the lumber was too rotten to use and was returned to the forest behind the shed. The rest I milled into smooth planks, revealing the work of many small organisms. From these planks I designed and made a series of shrines, sacred spaces for special objects. Matt Stone created an accompanying set of sculptures to reside with and within the shrines.

Matt Stone is one of the first artists I know of to utilize FDM prints as an art material. The mixed media sculptures combine PLA, resin, concrete, pigment, paint and natural materials such as found shells and bits of wood. Some play with function, holding incense or other objects. Others are hidden in drawers.

The Shrines feature a novel installation technique using wedged dovetail cleats that slide into milled grooves located on the backs of the panels. The woodwork took place in my father’s garage workshop, the accomanying sculptures were made in and shown in Boston’s South End. During the opening night a storm knocked out the power for the entire neighborhood, forcing visitors to view the work with candles and flashlights for the entirety of the evening.