Replica survey marker box: European plywood, walnut veneer

Aptly known as ‘witness marks’, cast iron survey markers are emissaries of the authoritative organisational body they represent. Ownership begins with classification: naming, measuring and mapping. Boundary markers delineate and order physical space. The artwork titled Fabrication is a replica survey marker box, an imitation, a lie. It is an obviously manufactured object laying, what might be considered, a manufactured claim to the land on which it sits. Here it is made from plywood, itself a simulated material (thin sheets of wood masquerading as solid timber) that attempts to improve on nature – to make it tameable, more consistent.