What is it?
Time-based: By looking around, you can see your own reflection—or dappled “stars” filmed in Little Spearfish Creek.
This artwork’s battered enclosure is an ammo box found in an ore car full of discarded material from the Sanford Underground Research Facility, set in the former Homestake gold mine in Lead, SD. The best theory I’ve heard for the use of this M56A3 20mm high-explosive cartridge ammo box at the mine was that it was used to temporarily transport blasting cartridges while excavating underground.
It contains a mirror found in the former gold foundry at SURF. I found it inside a locker in the facility’s locker room; it appears to have seen many years of use. I imagine that there must have been a foundry worker checking their face for smudges every day in this gold-faced mirror after clocking out.
The ammo box and mirror are paired with used rail ties and other discarded wood; inside is a small LCD and computer playing my footage of Little Spearfish Creek, filmed with a stopped-down aperture to create stars and filtered to pure black-and-white. I created a diorama with cement, model railroad track, and small rocks to recreate the experience of traveling through the facility’s many drifts.
I’ve heard it said that some astrophysicists look at the night sky; but the astrophysicists studying neutrinos or dark matter must burrow deeply to study the stars.
