Endangered Volume III

Details

    © 2019
  • Dimensions (in inches): 5.6 x 5.5 x 1.75
  • Materials:paper, litho ink, aspen leaves, mica, tyvek, thread, epoxy casting resin, cast acrylic, book cloth, book board, walnut ink
  • Collection of: artists collection (available)

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Part of an ongoing series Endangered Volume III uses pressed aspen leaves and an aspen branch gathered during the fall color change. It also includes a brief text about the fate of a particular clonal colony - Pando. Until very recently, Pando was thought to be the most massive living organism on earth; it now is believed to be the second largest. At around 80,000 years old, it is certainly one of the oldest. The specimens in this book aren't from Pando, but rather from two other groves in the San Juan mountains that I've been regularly since the mid-70's. My favorite groves are changing as well.

Endangered is a series of artists' books, each housed in a custom drop-spine box, the tray of which contains an assemblage, almost a mini-diorama, of various specimens. While the selected subjects of the series aren't officially endangered, I think that much of the natural world is indeed endangered. That there are still specimens to be gathered without much effort or extensive travel helps me live with the despair I too often feel when considering the likely future of the outdoor spaces I love and thrive in.

The trembling giant on Colorado Plateau is dying. Emphasis on power and material gain equals a disregard for the majesties of nature. We fear material losses so predators are banished and wildfires suppressed. Ranchers, cattle and deer thrive. An 80,000 year old organism dies. Pando, aka The Trembling Giant, is not only the largest known clonal colony of an individual male ‘quaky’, it is earth’s heaviest known organism weighing in at 13,200,000 pounds. With an estimated age of 80,000 years Pando is one of the oldest known living organisms. Pando is dying, primarily as the result of human interference.