
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.