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OBOIS:ANA
Bittersweet New England (Invasive Plant Atlas of New England) (exterior) Thomas Minor descendants, Federal census, 1850 (interior) Deer hide, Sassafras, Oriental bittersweet, artificial sinew, mushroom ink This double-sided installation/drawing is first seen on the main floor of the Joanne Toor Cummings gallery space. Following the towering vines of Oriental bittersweet from The Land that Thomas Miner Owns, 2009, the viewer sees an animal hide suspended on the edge of the third floor mezzanine. The hide is that of a deer, a typical ruminant mammal of southeastern New England. Stretched on a wooden frame, the hide is not intact: It has been cut and sewn together in the outline of southeastern New England state boundaries. With patches of hide missing, the animal appears to have been diseased or sick, although the viewer is left to wonder whether this occurred before or after its death. On the interior, towns are delineated in varying saturations of ink.