M. Carmen Lane—Compound Effigy
From the artist: M. Carmen Lane's site specific, mixed media/multimedia installation examines the function of place; architectures that have functioned as sites of protest in relationship to the projected meanings made by "citizens" that occupy the environment surrounding the structure. Expanding on the curatorial premise, Lane removes the Shrum burial/effigy mound that local Adena tribes built just outside of present-day Columbus some 2,000 years ago from previous colonial histories and brings the site itself into the gallery. Encouraging a shift from the colonial gaze to a place-based subjectivity, Lane's installation is a spatial portal to the ancestral seeds planted in that sacred location. It is a chance for viewers to witness and reconsider the land in ways that reject the typical socially constructed markers, which so often erase the need for personal responsibility and care.