Introduction to “Slight Disturbances”

For the past four years, Mount Livermore has been the subject of my artwork. The mountain is situated near the U.S./Mexico border and north of my studio in Marfa, Texas. It is a landmark for drug traffickers and undocumented workers backpacking through the area. “Slight Disturbances” is a term used by Border Patrol Trackers to describe “sign” when in pursuit in the field. Trackers do not look for footprints but for slight disturbances on the ground—a moved pebble or a bent blade of grass. Mount Livermore is also designated a "sky island" by the Nature Conservancy. A “sky island” is a mountain ecosystem that is isolated by valleys and/or deserts and contains species that are unique in the surrounding area. Scientists and environmentalists study the unique flora and fauna on the mountain. Archeology teams have conducted digs on and in the shadow of the mountain uncovering artifacts thousands of years old. Several decades ago, surveyors from a National Geodetic Survey team occupied the peak to measure distances to both McDonald Observatory and Organ pass located in New Mexico. They measured the exact location of the 107-inch Telescope in order for the data collected by the Lunar Laser Ranging Project to be more meaningful. It is the oldest “living” Apollo project. And currently an antenna at the peak is used by the Border Patrol to receive and transmit information from thousands of sensors in the area. The antenna is also used for emergency broadcasts. In short, many historical moments, technological stages, and political agendas converge at this site.

My work has been devoted to landscape concepts since 1989. Two years ago I set up an interview with a retired Border Patrol Tracker that resulted in tracking lessons, information about drug corridors in the area, and a conversation about the topological significance of Mount Livermore. Since then I have worked with the Border Patrol, the Nature Conservancy, a former moon rock curator at NASA, the lead archeologist at Sul Ross University, the director and the lead botanist for the Davis Mountain Preserve of the Nature Conservancy, an engineer from the McDonald Observatory, other naturalists, a pilot, and a holographic designer of military holograms.

The documentarist Karen Bernstein is now making a video about this project.

This series unfolds the multivalence of the landscape through an exploration of figure-ground relations. Such relations are far from being fixed or static. Gestalt is a continuously moving and changing experiences.

This project is about placement, displacement, movement and immeasurable experiences. It questions what constitutes wholeness of form, shape, perceptual field and viewpoint.