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Clay Boulder Field

This project was completed while I was an 'artist in residence' with the University of Georgia studies abroad program in Cortona, Italy in 1990. I discovered this filed while riding my bicycle around the countryside that October just after the field had been harrowed. Since the soil in the field was composed of a predominately clay soil, the plate-like and angular clay particles stick together to form very large soil clods like very large clay boulders.

The sculpture seen in these images is a big slab of white marble shaped like a plate-like clay particle. I placed this marble slab in the field to make reference to the un-seen microscopic and geometric elements that make the soil take the form of boulders. The visible contrast between the white marble slab and muddy clay boulders was very striking on the ground.  

Click on any thumbnail for a larger view.