as previously stated
‘as previously stated’ was a collaboration between poet Soleil David and myself in the form of an outdoor site-specific work. It is located on the grounds of the I-Park residency in Connecticut, alongside the Chalance path, where a few years back a large group of trees succumbed to Spongy Moth. All that is left of these trees are their tall standing, sometimes swaying trunks. The work consisted of 19 plywood signs, screwed into these trunks, forming a cluster, highlighting the area, this tree cemetery of a kind. The signs mimicked DO NOT TRESPASS or POSTED signs in size and font, so typical in forested areas, and carried lines from 'Docupoetics', David’s textual experiments .
‘as previously stated’ explored the inaccessibility or loss of an initial meaning and intent, which occurs over time, due to generational obstacles, physical decay, lack of access to the original, or because the language or cultural background is foreign, or just full of jargon.
The installation was subtle, then suddenly overwhelming in quantity, becoming comically absurd or disorienting. Without instructions on how to interact with the work, the signs all talked simultaneously.The language of the text was formal and authoritative but not fully graspable, akin to reading in a dream;
‘unfriendly with sympathies, this source reflects reservations’
‘bureau for review for information investigation’
‘The purpose of skin and allied last residence’
‘as previously stated’ itself was made to for nature to temper with. It was a field of signs screwed into dead wood which expelled them slowly. Or the trees themselves fell. And the text on the signs was written in charcoal, which rubbed off or dissolved in rain or snow, overtime becoming illegible and disappearing all together.
