BIG SEWELL

2010 | Projection, Light | Archival pigment print | Limited Edition of 5 Prints | Color | Lookout, West Virginia

Big Sewell was the first site-specific projection based project that worked to augment the visual/psychological impact of a place in memoriam. Portable, bicycle-powered and solar cel/battery-powered projectors are carried out to remote and rural sites. Video and images were 3D projection-mapped onto minute surfaces at the location, and the work was documented in video/photography, or experienced in a brief performance of light in situ. The work was meant to unlock psychic qualities latent in a space. This transformation is achieved either through visually exploring past events that occurred at the site, or considering personal superimposed memories, (more often than not, works pull from a mix of both).

Big Sewell specifically explores coal mining in Southern Coal Fields of rural West Virginia. Named for the mountain and coal mine located immediately adjacent to the artist's family farm, Big Sewell transforms the surfaces of a hemlock grove into fractures and glimmers of light in the claustrophobic darkness of the surrounding forest. The trees are located above the site of a mining disaster that occurred at the location many years ago, and the artist courts ghosts at the site.