Luminous

The MacDowell Dam, West Peterborough, NH
Courtesy of the Army Corps of Engineers

Dimensions:
50 x 800 feet (15 x 244 meters)
Boulder: 64 cubic feet (1.8 cubic meters)

Materials:
Granite boulder and gold

Luminous is a project intended to magnify the beauty of the innocuous. Working with the ordinary materials from which the MacDowell Dam is built, the work was constructed on the New Hampshire site’s northern, lakeside bank, where the integrity and strength expressed in the massive rock fill and earth structure are exposed.

Within this talus of granite, a single gilt boulder glows in inclement weather, shining in the sunlight. Distinct from the surrounding stone, it draws attention to a single unit of the overall form, enhancing and focusing interest in the slope and, by extension, the entire dam.