ABOUT THE PROJECT
Twelve Earths is a planetary sculpture by Michael Jones McKean, with critical support by Fathomers, which connects twelve sites — a primeval forest, a remote island, a nuclear test site, an observatory, and more — dispersed along a perfect ring encircling the Earth. Over a twelve-year period, Twelve Earths will build a constellation of contact points among people, matter, time, and events, establishing brief and long-form encounters with the geological and technological, with energy and transmutation, with human and non-human, to reveal a complex and multivalent portrait of Earth.
Clockwise: A detail From Michael Jones McKean’s studio showing a working model for Twelve Earths’ final ring path (photo: Nick Davis) / View of the Andes Mountains at sunset from the Víctor M. Blanco Telescope, Cerro Tololo, Chile, 2019. (photo: Michael Jones McKean Studio) / Teignmouth Electron in situ, 2017. (photo: All in Favor Productions). At top of page: Teignmouth Electron in situ, 2017.
ARTIST BIO
Michael Jones McKean (b. Micronesia, lives/works in the US and France) is a sculptor whose work explores the nature of objects in relation to folklore, technology, anthropology, and geography. McKean has received numerous awards, including a Guggenheim Fellowship and a Nancy Graves Foundation Award, and has lectured and shown his work extensively around the world. He is currently an Associate Professor at Virginia Commonwealth University in the Sculpture + Extended Media Department; a Contributing Editor for Art Papers; and the Artist-in-Residence of the Vera C. Rubin Observatory, the Museu de Leiria, and the Centro de Interpretação do Abrigo do Lagar Velho.
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