Core Sample


chimes at night the opening ceremony kept a blog with the Mississippi Museum of Art along the way partnered with the Bureau of the Creative Economy on a display showing how money moved in the project final installation touches Core Sample was the third installment (and first Mississippi artist) in the Museum's C3 series little visitor testing limits

In 2013, the Mississippi Museum of Art invited daniel to create a work for their series C3: Creativity. Conversation. Community. For five months, johnson transformed their studio space into an ongoing assembly line where participants made hand-made clay bells. Images submitted by over 1000 Mississippians were carved on to the bells. All 2222 bells were displayed as an 18ft wide 12ft tall windchime in the Museum’s Art Garden where visitors could be surrounded by the symbols of Mississippi resonating together.



work day on the assembly line with guests from Wolfe Fine Art Studio artists Amber Johnson and Kira Cummings chatting and shaping inscribed with the symbols of Mississippians and waiting to be fired in the kiln symbols were first submitted on paper via mail and at the museum finished bells waiting to be boxed and stored until install full shelves waiting to be fired groups of college students would hang out and work on the assembly line had to keep a proper running count to ensure the right balance of bells on the final windchime installation Kira Cummings during her facilitation shifts waiting on participants early-onset Alzheimer's groups joining us for bell-making symbol submitted by the Mississippi Cultural Crossroads center in Port Gibson, MS the weigh station - so many plastic boxes to keep clay from drying while moving through the assembly line keeping count... school groups easily fit in the schedule to activate the assembly line and learn basic clay hand-building techniques once inscribed on a bell, symbols migrated to our board Abed Haddad hard at work facilitating some participants got super creative 1/2lb of clay per bell, 2222 total bells the entire process from raw clay to finished bell storage visible in one room Millsaps College Chemistry class field trip to test our clay compositions star participant Catherine was 5-years-old and got so good she would teach others independently johnson's son Vesper turning the lights off on the last day the final glazing of the final bells, thanks Suzie and Pat Kellum!


The bell assembly line was designed so that it could be activated at any time by a museum visitor. Two artists, Kira Cummings and Abed Haddad, were hired to help johnson keep regular hours throughout the week where visitors were facilitated, but once trained many returned during off-hours to continue the work and train others. The set up of the space ensured that many hands made each bell. Because no one could follow a single bell through the process, participants identified with the collection rather than trying to find “their” bell - although everyone did try to find “their” symbol. More than 1500 Mississippians from across the state participated in the project.


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Hattiesburg American

daniel@significantdevelopments.us — Jackson, Mississippi
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