Salient Points, Salient Lines
University of Southern Mississippi, Hattiesburg, MS
1986
Materials & Dimensions:
Limestone riprap and granite boulders
Total site length: 930 feet
Width of area of stone lines, creek and cairns: 20-40 feet
Cairns: 3-4 feet high
The site was an open lawn crossed by a concrete-lined creek with drainage spurs. The creek was bordered on one side by Virginia live oaks (Quercus virginiana Mill).
This installation centered on the largest "structure" on the university campus: a creek that had been lined with concrete by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in the late 1930s to control erosion. I built the stone lines and cairns to focus attention on the contours of the land around the creek swale and on the relationship of the border of live oaks to the line of the creek. I used stone because this area of Mississippi is an alluvial plain and stone outcropping of any type is unusual.