Dane Mitchell

Buried Gemstone, 2017 is a dormant object. It is an artwork consisting of a single, large gemstone buried in an undisclosed location. The placement of the gemstone known only to the artist. Through this act of concealment the work becomes a kind of uncontrollable encounter: the entire site becomes a contaminated field. Like a contagion, the hidden object infects the entire landscape.

Primarily existing in the imaginations of the viewers as they walk the sculpture trail it sits within, the viewer might imagine this latent object — a precious stone — concealed from view yet present in the mind of the viewer and in the soil of the site alike.

"Buried Gemstone, 2017 can be seen as a counteragent to the physicality of much public sculpture. I hope that it might encourage conversations in the public pertaining to the dominance of vision in the arts, the centrality of ideas buried within objects, the role of the imagination in viewing works of art, how the unseen might be an effervescent presence (with)in everything and how a work of art might embed in the landscape rather than be plonked on it. And although that’s a lot of weight for one artwork to carry, perhaps it might also suggest the hidden value the land holds.”