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NEW MOUND CITY is a site-specific installation and photography project created in St Louis. Based on the original nickname of St Louis – “Mound City” - the project documents current sites where ancient Native American earthworks once sat, and creates contemporary 'mounds' in their place. Much like Cahokia, the well preserved mound complex just across the Mississippi, St Louis had dozens of mounds and earthworks, essentially being a suburb of sorts. This Mississippian culture thrived along the river roughly 1000 years ago, with an eventual population of approximately 40,000 people - making it a larger city than London at the time. Yet, the Native Americans of this region first encountered by Europeans had only mythologies about these
structures, the people, and what happened to them. In contemporary St. Louis, this history is all but erased. Nowadays, not far from what was coined the "St Louis Mound Group" in 1701, there sits a tent city known as "Hopeville" - a new Mississippian culture along the great river. Atop the abandoned railroad depot nearby, I placed a tent, waiting for a new chief to claim reign over Monk's Mound West.
With this project, I imagine how we might be seen in 1000 years from now, what our artifacts will be, and wonder whether we are really any different. |
Glove Mound, South with Swift |
Drum Mound, Northeast with Asbestos |
Glove Mound, Southeast |
Drum Mound, Northwest Silhouette |
Glove Ship |
Glove Mound, North |
Drum Mound, Northeast with Paint Can |
Glove Mound, Southeast from Roof |
Glove Room |
Drum Mound, Northeast with String |
Glove Mound, Southeast, Here We Go |
Glove Mound Takes Shape |
Drum Mound, Northeast with Totems |
Glove Mound, Northwest |
Glove Mound Tree |
Glove Mound, South, Cloudy |
Entrance to Mound Site, Re-Boarded |
Monks Mound West |
Monks Hut North |
Stone Circle North |
New Mississippians, East from Monks Mound (Hopeville) |
Monks Hut South |
Monks Mound West, with Hut and God |
Monks Hut, North with Tarp |
Monks Mound West, West |
Stone Circle, Monks Tomb North |
Stone Circle Hut, Monks Tomb North |
Cave Paintings, Monks Mound West |
Fertility Goddess, Monks Mound West |
Monks Hut and the New Mississippians |
New Mississippians with Riverboat |
Monks Mound, Sun God Canopy |
Sun God |
Glyph Totem |
Canine Skeleton |
Oracle Game |
Petrified Hand Forms |
Artifacts, detail |
Mound Sites and Artifacts |
Divination Wheel |
Fossilized Enamel |
Time Piece |
Name Badges |
Ceremonial Solar Disk |
Radioactive Bulletin Board |
St Louis Mound Group, 1809 |
200 Years Later - St Louis Mound Group, 2010 |
Mound 27, La Grange de Terre (the earthen barn) aka The Big Mound |
Mound 27, La Grange de Terre (the earthen barn) aka The Big Mound |
Mounds 22 and 21 - Vess Mound |
Mound 11, the Old Reservoir |
Mound 19 |
Mounds 18, 17, and the Grand Plaza |
Mounds 18, 17, 16 |
Mounds 12, 7, and 6 aka Falling Gardens Mound |
Mounds 10, 9, 8, 7 |
Mound 4 |
The Old Spanish Fort |
Sugarloaf Mound |
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