1980

El Florido Tunil (Stones Precious of El Florido)

Michelle Stuart

American, born 1933

In this monumental work, Michelle Stuart blurs the boundaries between drawing and land art. Working with two scrolls of muslin-backed rag paper, a material used for mapmaking, Stuart captured the topography of a specific location—in this instance, El Florido, Guatemala, not far from the ancient Maya archaeological site at Copan, Honduras. Stuart rolled out the blank scrolls atop the landscape and applied pressure through rubbing, causing the soil and earth below to adhere to the paper and become incorporated as materials of the drawing. Small dents in the surface of the work suggest rocks and other matter that remained at the site. Stuart worked as a cartographic drafter for the United States Army Corps of Engineers, translating aerial photographs into drawings, a project that required a deep engagement with the landscape whose reverberations can be seen throughout her oeuvre.