Pompey’s Folly
Part of Points & Lines
Ryan Taber
Pompey’s Folly, 2006
Steel, concrete, reclaimed construction materials
13’ x 9’ x 13’
Courtesy of the artist
…Sharing a like interest in appropriated materials, Ryan Taber’s (b. 1978; lives and works in Los Angeles, CA) Pompey’s Folly is comprised of objects recovered from the building of the Los Angeles County Metro Rail’s Gold Line, a key feature in the current revitalization of Downtown LA. These reclaimed items back a large concrete skim reminiscent of sport climbing walls. When the concrete was wet, the artist stylized various features such as geological fissures and the like, which are frequent selling points of such equipment. Weaved into these simulations is the recreation of William Clark's inscription of his name and date into the face of a huge rock formation in Montana. This carving, the only surviving physical evidence known to remain along the route of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, is currently a National Monument and tourist attraction. As commentary, Taber’s “forgery” calls into question not only to the use of the signature as a means of authority, but the historic construction of how an act of vandalism can become an artifact of ideological significance and myth building’not to mention that Clark’s autograph went over a set of much older Native American pictographs, which are no longer visible today. Likewise, the juxtaposition of this mark with materials from a contemporary city expansion project resonates with our own building endeavors today and the various histories such acts both foster and destroy…
