“...dark nowhere and everywhere around me - and surfacing into this blinding light seems like stepping into ignorance.” -Robert Macfarlane

Hypothetically exhumed from the ground from a neighborhood street in Memphis, Tennessee and set on its side, The Sinkhole, depicts a seemingly bottomless void into an unknown space often overlooked above ground. These portals into dark places act as metaphors for structures and systems taken to be absolute truth, which range from human social dynamics to institutionalized oppressions. Their unexpected occurrence reminds us that human sense of exceptionalism is an illusion and the earth beneath us continues to be in constant motion, losing its own temporary boundaries and grinding against itself, opening up voids reminiscent of black holes and portals. The Sinkhole migrated to the surface as an unfathomable chasm carrying with it a warning that American social foundations, created through illusions of power and direct exploitation, can, like so much rebar and concrete, crumble back into complicit and phenomenal non-existence. Viewers are invited into the void to see what they may come to terms with in the darkness, but are asked to photograph the sculpture only with flash, preserving the reality of the experience for what can only be had in person, and the reality of the image for a fraught virtual realm.

The Sinkhole
plywood, fiberglass, urethane foam, paint, reflective beads, aluminum, epoxy grout, found asphalt pieces, hardware.

13.5’x9’x12’

2022