artifacts

ALAMO VINE

Plant pod preserved with enamel and acrylics, set in concrete plinth

It persistently stitches itself into the ditch, on a road near an old rental house in East Austin. Tenants may come and go, but the quiet bloom on an endless vine that scrambles along telephone lines turns into a strong wooden flower that rewrites itself year after year by dispersing seeds when no one is looking.

Alamo Vine. East Austin, Texas. Geolocation: 30°16'42.6"N 97°42'56.6"W

Magnolia Leaf

Leaf preserved with enamel and acrylics, set in concrete plinth

A torn leaf from a tree famed for its strength reads not as failure but as a record of a life. Creased with memories, perforated with holes, tested by heat, wind and rain, it still holds together. No wounds are hidden, instead the fractures speak about the will to live and a story.

Magnolia Leaf. Dallas, Texas. Geolocation: 32°52'08.9"N 96°50'25.8"W

Ponderosa Pine Cone

Pine cone preserved varnish, set in concrete plinth

A relic of stubborn care and hands that believed something could take root where almost nothing stayed. Just like the bison that once roamed the grasslands of North America. This Ponderosa pine cone comes from a tree planted in the 19th Century by Mary Ann Goodnight, who carried the sapling to a place where it still grows – like the bison she brought back from extinction.

Ponderosa Pine. Goodnight, Texas. Geolocation: 35°01'49.7"N 101°10'59.6"W