Significant & Insignificant Mounds

The photographs in Significant & Insignificant Mounds represent ongoing work —regular and repeated visits locating, observing, imagining, researching, documenting and often seeking to know a landscape that seems to resist knowing. Most of the photographs have been made along the Mississippi River in the region entitled The American Bottom. This land holds a complex layering of history and culture. Here, Indigenous peoples lived some 2000 years ago, the French settled in the 17th century, 20th century industrial production left its marks, scars and piles. The Army Corps of engineers remade a landscape with levees and roadways, fertile farmland is abundant, and the politics of race and economies are densely tangled. While the area is sometimes known as Mound City, it is less often recognized by its historical relationship to the Native American Mississippian culture. These were the pre-contact Cahokian peoples who built a vast and interconnected array of mounds throughout the region. Some, not many of these ancient mounds still exist. It is not without irony that this area also holds the residue of industrial activity. Slag heaps, land fills, wild vegetation, or odd adjacencies are the result of the human intersect with the land and littered throughout this landscape. The Milam Landfill, garbage waste that ironically rests just 3 miles south of the historic Cahokia Mounds, and the eroding dirt piles situated at one EPA clean-up site are just two examples of the ironies of this complex geography. The larger expression of the project is a collaborative effort with texts gathered from sources that range from historic documents, county registers, land surveys, archeological notes and literary texts. A small example of the text/image relationships can be seen at : https://www.jennifercolten.com/s-i-text-image The project's title intentionally plays upon expectations. Each of these mounds is, on its own terms, both significant and insignificant. The pairing of text and image, and in the pairing of so-called ‘meaning-filled’ and ‘meaning-less subjects raises questions about the perceived value judgments that so often accompany landscape photography and description. This project is ongoing. We have exhibited the work in galleries and museums. We are currently working on producing a book of the work. The project has over 50 finished photographs and a vast store of accompanying texts and related diagrams and maps. related : http://www.theamericanbottom.org/itineraryTwo.html