Replacement

Raw clay from the Chesapeake Bay, creek bed near tributary headwaters. 2015.

This site in Allegheny County, NY is located near the head of a tributary to the Susquehanna watershed, which empties into the Chesapeake Bay. The clay for this piece was collected from a mine at the very head of the Bay and returned to its theoretical starting location in the shale of a creak bed. Replacement is fit to the specific contours of the mother rock, yet is obviously out of place. It asks how close can we come to our environments and how well can we know our place in places.