Speaking of Rock

This work consists of a large ‘erratic’ boulder, approximately 10’ x 8’, fabricated with epoxy resin and fiberglass cloth. An assortment of speakers, both large and small, are imbedded into one side of the boulder. Although painted to resemble a rock, its evident fiction is made apparent in the seam lines that join together the various sections of the boulder.

The absurdity of the erratic speaker amplifies our existing relationship to the evermore-present, speaker rock – a plastic rock which allows for the illusion of nature, while providing the choice of Muskoka pop should crickets or frogs not be the preference of the day. The work examines the fine line that exist between the authentic and the fabricated, and what brings one to consume the manufactured world and another to protest it, as they hold on to some notion of authenticity. It’s also just a really big rocking rock.

The work was commissioned for the Power Plant Contemporary Art Gallery’s Power Ball 11, It’s One Louder.