Camp Washington Lath Gongshi
The form is based off Chinese scholar rocks or gong-shi (供石). Many cultures utilize a similar concept but they are decorative rocks placed in gardens for contemplation. They are also at times depicted in paintings and have other spiritual and health implications.
This piece is about dealing with the past, using what is available, and trying to make a better future. The reclaimed lumber was removed and repurposed from an apartment building in the Camp Washington neighborhood of Cincinnati. Originally built in 1900, over a century of different repairs and woods were used within. It’s a reminder that we are a part of nature, impermanent, and always changing.
The original inhabitants of the building most likely packed into small apartments and worked in factories along Spring Grove Avenue by Mill Creek. The Mill Creek Valley has been slowly cleaning and reclaiming itself after the throws of industrialization have altered the landscape for centuries to come. The landscape of Imago coincidentally has also been repurposed from housing and like everything else is in a state of becoming.
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Skip Cullen
Geoffrey “Skip” Cullen is an artist working in Cincinnati, Ohio. Skip is a member of the artist collective Slapface and a co-founder of Adobe Books and Arts Cooperative in San Francisco. He is a co-founder of WavePool, a Camp Washington, Cincinnati located arts center and community space which pairs communities’ knowledge of their needs with artists’ sense of possibility. He currently works on his own artistic practice and is the Exhibitions Director for Visionaries + Voices, a Non-Profit creating an inclusive arts community for artists with and without developmental disabilities.