Rosetta is an 8-foot tall geometric human-shaped statue of flat wood panels mounted to a metal plate. Each panel has a laser-etched inscription using an ancient language: Sanskrit, Norse runes, Latin, Greek, Arab, Mayan, Inca, ancient Chinese, and ancient Egyptian. These inscriptions all have the same message. Participants will be invited to make a carbon tracing of each panel to try and decipher than at a later point and unlock the meaning of the messages. The materials for making these tracings will be placed in a box at the statue's base. Inside the figure is another skeleton made of laser-cut steel with a geometric heart cast of stone. At some point during the burn week, the wooden armature will be burned away revealing the steel skeleton and the heart. The project explores how the same concepts and tools for understanding life are developed by historically and geographically disparate cultures but simultaneously the expression of these concepts is represented through unique and individual aesthetics. Each panel has the same message in a different language or writing system from various cultures across time. The goal is to use writing systems that won't be easily translated and will require active participation by taking a carbon copy of the words and deciphering them. Participants who come upon the project and use the carbon tracing paper to decode this message will see that the same ideas existed across cultures they are universal and human. The act of burning the project away and revealing the inner skeleton which removes all the ornamental aspects of culture represents the journey of impermanence that we all share universally as humans.
