Touchstone 2025 Brimestone, Calcite, Phosphosiderite, Psilomelane, Magnesium, Chromium, Spahlerite, Copper, Botryoidal Hematite, Flourite, Selenium, Iodine, Molybdenite, Feldspar, Salt, resin, garnet sand, foam, steel, asphalt patch, projection, and sound

The calcium in your teeth was once a primordial crustacean shell that settled as dust on the seafloor. Earth subducted the matter and spat it back up into aquifers. Springs carried it to your mother’s tongue, and the calcium tucked into your budding bones. One day, it will dissolve back into the earth, carrying with it the memory of your warmth. 

Historically, a touchstone, or a piece of slate, is used to test the validity of a precious metal like gold. It refers to a standard, a measure of comparison. Here, touchstone is an invitation for viewers to grasp their own material makeup as an intersection of the geological and the self. Bornhoft embedded the sixteen most prevalent minerals of the human body into large sheets of resin in the same proportions as they are found in the body. The forms evoke section cuts much like what a field geologist would cut out of a stone to analyze the contents.  Along with the sculptural elements in the installation, video projections of hand-drawn animations, poetic text, and video of the minerals punctuate the space. A soundscape fills the installation, drawing textural connections between our flesh and what was—and what will soon be again—Earth. 

This work was made with great assistance from Weber State Students, Janika Linville and Xanthe Harris. Carey Campbell generously contributed the soundscape. 

Projected Videos