Artist and sometimes FrontRow contributor Joshua Goode is currently in Germany where he is working on a surprising archaeological dig that is documented in the video below. Goode went to the European country looking for ruins of a lost Texas civilization, and, not soon after he began his dig in field outside the tiny hamlet of Hilmsen (which could pass for the rural landscape off I-35) Goode found items like a sheriff’s badge, a solid gold T-Rex unicorn skull (complete with saddle), a “mammoth cowboy,” and other indications that link the objects to an ancient civilization that migrated from Texas to Europe.
“I found everything I thought I would,” Goode said in a statement that feels integral to the work, namely the creative assertion of the artist taking root in fictitious histories. I haven’t chewed on Goode’s project very long, but it has the feel of investigation into the origin of myths, and the relation of myth, story, archaeological and iconographic data to the fabrication of cultural identities. It’s also a project that achieves a particular resonance considering Goode is digging in the native home of Karl May.
But all that aside, the video is pretty entertaining.
