1893 Ounces of Gold
2022
Compressed soil from mine, sealed
5 1/2” x 5 1/2” x 5 1/2”
(14 cm x 14 cm x 14 cm)

The central piece in the exhibition The Absolute Restoration of All Things is a sculpture that sits within the deep pit of the decommissioned gold mine. Made on-site with soil from the pit, the sculpture is shaped as a perfect cube that is 70 x 70 x 70 cms. This sculpture represents in volume the amount of gold that was extracted illegally from the mine and would have a value of approximately 436 million dollars.

If added, the 125 cubes of this edition comprise the 236,709 ounces of gold that were mined, for which 10,833,527 tons of stone had to be blown up and moved. The 125 cubes, each representing 1893 ounces of gold, are all unique, made of compressed soil from the mine in the Sonoran desert by the artist.

Each edition is produced individually and is unique.

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Miguel Fernández de Castro (b. 1986, Sonora, Mexico) is a visual artist based in the Sonora-Arizona borderlands. Through photography, video, sculpture, and writing, his work examines how extractive and criminal economies materially transform a territory while looking at the historical ties between environmental catastrophe, smuggling routes, and forced disappearance. In Mexico, his work has been shown at Museo Jumex, Casa del Lago, and Museo de Arte Moderno. Internationally he’s presented work at Frac Centre-Val de Loire (France), Spazio Veda (Italy), Wren Library (UK), Museo Artium (Spain), Ashkal Alwan (Lebanon), among others. His film Grammar of Gates was selected by Ballroom Marfa to be for the Artists’ Film International program at Whitechapel Gallery in London. Since 2018 he has collaborated with multiple search groups documenting mass graves on both sides of the Mexico-US border