Mona Gazala

This project began with research and reading on the concept of visibility and power dynamics, as they relate to indigenous Palestinians in art, media, surveillance, and agency. In Gil Hochberg's book "Visual Occupations," he describes the literary works of Israeli writers who use the "mysterious" abandoned Arab villages in Israel as the settings for narratives, without fully acknowledging the violence of Palestinian erasure. I felt compelled to visit the likewise "mysterious" places in Ohio where Hopewell earthworks once stood, as a study of architectural and cultural erasure. This project consists of an essay published by Muff Magazine (Jan 2020), a photographic series, and a videotaped performance, "Goldenrod Dance," on the banks of the north fork of Paint Creek, Chillicothe, Ohio. Once the site of the largest complex of Hopewell geometric and burial earthworks - covering over 200 acres -this ancient monument has since been largely destroyed by colonial agriculture.