Loculus, 2015, DargerHQ
About:
In Latin, the word “loculus” means “little place.”
In the ancient world, a “loculus” was an architectural niche that housed a dead body--a chamber or cell in a catacomb. The word “loculus” also refers to the ovary in a plant, as well as to the satchel carried by Roman soldiers. Archimedes also had a loculus: similar to a tangram, it was a 14- piece puzzle game in which the pieces form a perfect square.
What would it mean to make a work that embodied all these things? Something shifting back and forth between these kinds of containers. A place to house the dead and dead or buried things; a place to produce or reproduce things; a kit; a puzzle to be played with and solved. “Loculus” intends to do just that.
Within the installation bits of narrative push you through a kind of open book in space. You travel through different characters, different guides. Much of the drawing and line work is inspired by the Shaker “gift drawings” and various manuals and maps.