Dig, Mix, Ram, Release,

This series of displays showcase over 900 compressed earth blocks I dug, mixed with sand, cement, and water, compressed with a board and mallet, and released from their molds. I began my project interested in texture, uniqueness, process, labor, repetition, weight, and precarity. I was interested in the control over the final product that I relinquished by using such an organic material. As I made the blocks, my mixtures became less measured, my sifting became less selective, my molds wore to be less square, and my hands grew calloused. I became nose blind to the smell of soil in my studio and my body got used to kneeling, hunching, hammering, and carrying. I wanted to show my blocks as individuals, since none of them touch — but also as collective assemblies: three parts that seek to compliment the exhibition space. They also contrast the weight-bearing, geologically compressed limestone blocks of the gallery housing my work. My uniformly spaced trellis-like display, acts as a reference for the blocks’ varying shapes, thicknesses, and stages of drying.