Text reproduced from an Ossuary promotional pamphlet.
1998

The Ossuary project is sculpture-plus.  It’s concerned with the union of Nature’s designs and human inventions.  Ossuary addresses the global infusion of technology into life and probes not only the structure of this union but also its influences on the human spirit.

Sculpture-plus consists of several interconnected components which supplement each other and form an overall system of inquiry.  Primarily sculpture, Ossuary also includes photography and works on paper such as drawing, printing and watercolor.

Three main elements, each with its own particular set of references, compose the sculptural forms for this project: A pack of five reconstructed coyote skeletons, an animal calling device, and a related figure.

Ossuary presents the coyote as an avatar of a “liminal shift” – a gray area between organic and synthetic states.  Foremost, the history of these particular coyotes reveals a legacy of extermination in the West begun during WW1 by the United States bureau of Biological Survey① and prolonged by generations of protective ranchers and misinformed citizens.  Shot and killed in areas interspersed with ranches and Reservations the coyotes of Ossuary represent contradictory roles as bothersome pests and Creation Myth characters.  Consequently, this pack of five is affected by both synthetic and mystic factors – simultaneously victims of “the gun that won the West” and players in the drama of Creation.

Their skeletons have been cleaned and prepared according to classical texts on museum display.  However, contemporary additions such as cold-formed stainless steel armatures and lime-green polymer intervertebral discs belie a completely traditional approach.  Furthermore, their skulls are fitted with polished obsidian “eyes” which abstract an accurate scientific representation while expressing notions of war and religion②.

The pack’s positioning continues to reinforce a conceptual and physical merging of Nature’s designs and human inventions.  First, the five skeletal forms operate within a token ring③ configuration.  Together, they relate in a syzygy④ to the call box and to the black figure called Harbinger.

A retrofitted U.S. Army autotransformer acts as the animal calling device.  It is an allegory of military principles and manipulates the relationship between the other two elements by projecting the sounds of coyote yips and howls.

Harbinger is a complex and spiritual figure.  Shrouded in state of the art military and tactical gear, as well as ceremonial objects, it sits on the cusp of identity.  In some ways reminiscent of the mystical shadow warriors of the Japanese shinobi arts, it also recalls the integrated technology used by contemporary soldiers.  Thus, the figure presents a conflation of natural and invented designs.

The appearance of Harbinger suggests a classical sniper.  It becomes invisible by becoming nature through camouflage.  The three-dimensional camouflage system, known as a ghillie suit, removes the human form by erasing the line of the silhouette.  Harbinger therefore becomes abstract in its formlessness.

From its Kevlar helmet, gold-tipped antlers/antennae point upward and suggest a cosmological context for the transmission of implied energy.

Harbinger aims a juniper talisman tipped with gold.  Here, gold references the technology of the space program and its integration with human operators, as in the face shield of a PLSS⑤.

Notes

① The beginning of  predatory animal control by governmental employees at public expense in the United States may be said to have been in 1915 when Congress appropriated $125,000 for the Bureau of Biological Survey, which was then part of the United States Department of Agriculture.  The methods of coyote population control were: (1) trapping, (2) poisoning, and (3) den-hunting.  (from “coyote Control,” in Mammals of Nevada {Berkeley, 1946}, p.249-252).

② Obsidian was used in native American and Pre-Colombian cultures for flintknapping weapons such as knives, arrowheads, and atlatl spear points.  Ceremonial and religious objects, such as black mirrors, were also fashioned from this volcanic glass.

③ Token ring refers to a five point star topology used in the design of networks for computer communication.

④ A syzygy is an alignment of three celestial objects, as the sun, the earth, and the moon or a planet.

⑤ A portable Life-Support System (PLSS) is a self-contained, integrated astronaut suit.