Filmed under lower light to better show the symbol’s luminosity.
Archive: DHPW-2023-035
Artist: Dave Holt
Year: 2023
Medium: Acrylic on treated petrified wood
Dimensions: approx. 4⅛ × 3⅛ × 2¼ in. (10.5 × 7.9 × 5.7 cm)
Weight: 1.4 lb (0.64 kg)
Origin: Northern Arizona
Geological age: Late Triassic, approximately 200+ million years old
About the Work
This piece is built around an unusually pale and translucent section of petrified wood. Cream, white, gray, amber, and soft red mineral areas form an irregular field that changes dramatically across the object’s surface. Against it, black symbols spread across the front in dense clusters, interrupted by turquoise, blue, white, gold, and the isolated red point. Circular forms, radiating structures, small geometric elements, repeated dots, and loose linear marks overlap the stone’s fractures and mineral boundaries rather than conforming to a single flat plane.
The symbol continues around the object, appearing along edges, recesses, and adjoining surfaces. As the piece is turned, painted areas disappear and reappear while large sections of unmarked stone become dominant. The contrast between the dense black marks and the luminous mineral body gives the work an almost archaeological presence, as though different systems have accumulated on the same object at different moments. There is no assigned translation or fixed narrative. The marks establish relationships, repetitions, and apparent sequences, but their meaning remains deliberately inaccessible, leaving the viewer to encounter the piece as both a physical remnant of deep geological time and a contemporary symbolic object.
Available for Purchase
$750
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