Endolith Casts

With her installation Dana Barnes creates a landscape of concrete forms colonized by unexpected, texturally intricate structures and color reminiscent of the endolith lichens.

Dana Barnes’ installation Endolith Casts – featured among the international galleries exhibiting at Skylight Clarkson Sq, NYC – is an extension of the studio’s ongoing exploration of textural composition.

As a scape of contiguous forms, the work references the seeming immutable nature of lichen growth and its complex relationship with the unyielding materials it colonizes to produce quiet explosions of unexpected, texturally intricate structures and color.

Each unique cast creates a paradox of materiality reminiscent of the gritty, sensual beauty of natural forces. The result is a compilation of timeless objects that can function together or individually set within a contemporary context.

The work drew inspiration from the poet Elizabeth Bishop and her use of endolith lichen and its concentric growth patterns as a metaphor for ageless passion (The Shampoo, 1955).

To articulate this natural phenomenon, spontaneous knotting and meticulous shearing techniques are used to create a wet-bonded fibrous textile that radiates into densely sculptural, vibrant bursts of color. It is then immersed in fluid state concrete and cast in a time sensitive curing procedure that seamlessly fuses the woolen mass and stone-like composite.