I consider this world divided into two time-based categories. The first is Temporary, and the second is Lasting. In my piece I present the Temporary and the Lasting together in a unified experiment. Here at Fort Adams, I was shown an area of the fort which had runic carvings on the ground, and it gave me the realization that the freemason who had carved those runes had left an imprint of himself knowing it would last much longer than he would, knowing even that many people would not even understand the carvings he had left. He recognized himself as the Temporary, but left an imprint that was Lasting. Through a time gap of 200 years I was connecting with this freemason, connecting through our knowledge of runic lettering, and connecting through our shared work as fabricators. The imprints we leave behind connect us, hold meaning, tell history, and through our imprints we are remembered. And so I reach to display the Temporary as steel futhork runes pressing into clean fabric to create the Lasting: imprints of rust from the steel runes. And as time passes, the imprints will grow and alter, and grown much like fungus. The rust will stain the fabric and reveal the shape of the runes and the message they spell out, which is that we are temporary, but our imprints are lasting.

Published: December 06, 2016