Untitled

Ree Morton's work in drawings, sculpture, and textiles is often concerned with spaces, enclosures, and boundaries, and may include-as on the canvas element of the AMAM work-dotted or dashed lines delineating borders. She used unconventional found materials, such as twigs and branches, with aspects of ritual and mapping subtly apparent. Her extensive notebooks document her thoughts and influences, from philosophy to the natural world.

Many of Morton's early installations were lost or destroyed, and are known only through photographs. The AMAM's work is a rare, early piece, composed of nine branches supported by two forked branches, all painted, framing a drawing on canvas. Its construction seems to reference a primitive shelter or an altar, and is evidence of Morton's desire to connect painting, sculpture, and installation in a highly personal way. During 1971-73, when the AMAM piece was produced, many of her works were architectural or cartographic in character. In her notebook, just after the pages that relate to Oberlin's piece, are notes about ritual killings in Celtic mythology and in Roman Gaul, discussing burnings in "cages of wood" and in "huge wicker-work images."

This example of Morton's work probably found its definitive form in April-May 1973, when she came to Oberlin as part of the Four Young Americans exhibition at the AMAM, which also included the work of Ann McCoy, Jackie Winsor, and Mary Miss.