Great Serpent

multimedia storytelling

The Great Serpent Mound is the longest earthwork in North America, created 2500+ years ago, sited on a cliff face, shaped like the head of a serpent, above Brush Creek in Adams County, Ohio. The Serpent is a quarter mile long, with seven undulating coils, open mouth swallowing (or expelling) an egg. Embedded in the earthwork are the languages of celestial movement, geometry, earth science, and the memory of the people who lived along the river banks and built this enduring work of art and imagination. I grew up 18 miles from the sacred site.

Great Serpent is a storytelling project that weaves voices — descendants of the original builders, scholars, scientists, dancers, musicians—with music and images--to evoke the timeless power and medicine of this monumental work.

Read more about the Serpent & Earthwork Sites

David Ornette Cherry created a sound score—electronic and multi-instrumental for voices and movement—and we piloted a version of this work in LA prior to the pandemic.

R&D has been supported by an Oregon Arts Commission professional development grant for further study, and a Robert Rauschenberg Residency where I made the set of silk panel maps as a backdrop for the images and stories.

Pilot: June, 2019, International Society for the Study of Time, Time in Variance, Loyola Marymount University, LA.  Collaboration with composer David Ornette Cherry, performed with bassist Ollie Elder Jr., percussionist, John Price, and poet-philosopher, Frederick Turner.