La Montaña Artificial
I was myself the compass of that sea:
I was the world in which I walked, and what I saw
Or heard or felt came not but from myself;
And there I found myself more truly and more strange. - Wallace Stevens in Tea at the Palaz of Hoon
“O God, I could be bounded in a nutshell and count myself a king of infinite space.” - From Hamlet
I started making this work after seeing a sign in Madrid´s city park that marked the spot of the “Montaña Artificial” (artificial mountain). The directness of its claim of artificiality surprised me, especially in a park in the middle of a bustling city, filled with man made ponds, imported ruins from an old monastery, and gardens containing floral specimens from all over the world. The sign made an accurate claim to the representational existence of the mountain, which was completely out of context within its setting of actual artificiality.
