Jonathan Anderson, Construction (The Clearing), 2011, oil on two joined birch panels, with unpainted structure, 66 × 48 in.

In 2011, I built a half-scale reconstruction of Henry David Thoreau’s cabin at Walden Pond by structurally framing the building according to contemporary building code (see Construction (after Thoreau)). In this painting, I then visually “placed” that reconstruction within a visual reconstruction of the location in which his cabin existed. This placing, however, is constructed as a vertical diptych: the lower panel situates the cabin on the earth, and the upper panel situates it against the tree-filled sky. These panels come together at a “horizon” that coincides with the joining of the cabin’s unpainted walls to its unpainted roof.