2026
As part of a 6 week residency at Prairie Ronde, I worked in the former Lee Paper Mill in Vicksburg, Michigan, producing sculpture and also also site-specific installations. I approached the mill as a monument, and also a timekeeping device: both as a container of memories and histories, and a structure for measuring time in relation to the sun. Alongside small sculptures made from material found around the property, my site-specific work is expressed in two projects: a cairn made from discarded concrete, and a set of 150 “Sundowels” that track solar time in the mill. Both are influenced by traditional Druidic and Celtic ritual architectures, and are also a response to the material conditions in and around the mill.
The cairn sits on a gently sloping plinth that was once part of a railroad spur for shipping paper out of the mill. It marks time and event, namely the changes that have occurred in the life of the mill, the death of a 12-point buck on 10/6/26 that is buried on the property, for the many lives and livelihoods that worked in the mill over 100+ years, and for the concrete itself, ripped out of the mill during renovations. The cairn’s own existence may be temporary, as the land it sits on may be re-graded for future usages, which would also take the cottonwoods and elm that have grown out of the plinth that it sits on.
Sundowels is an installation about time-keeping at various scales. Installed in one section of the mill which aligns exactly with east and west, their placement is dictated by holes in the floor drilled for electrical conduit. Initially constructed to harness all available sunlight, the mill buildings are slim, with large windows that illuminate the space. In photographs early in its operation, there are scant electric bulbs visible, and the paper machines were run via a set of shafts, pulleys and belts. Very little equipment would have used electricity then, but from the 1900s to 2006, machinery shifted to electric motors, hence 150+ holes were drilled in this section to accommodate the change in power. By placing the dowels at these locations, they highlight that conversion, tracking time embedded in the physical space. Simultaneously, they act as sundials in the light admitted by the huge warehouse windows, tracking the sun as it moves over the course of each day and throughout the year.
