Adam Davies

Culverts

As an architectural form, culverts create a space that lies on the border between outside and inside. Frequently used to redirect waterways under roads and railways, culverts often function as the connecting link between two natural environments, moving under or through manmade environments. If bridges are a passage for human transportation over a natural obstacle, conversely, culverts facilitate the passing of the natural world through the man-made. This project explores the solitude and strangeness of these spaces.

Introductory Quote

Memories of the past and fear of the future were ghosts which haunted their blissful peace.

— August Strindberg

Portfolio

Sleepy Creek, Maryland pigment print 127 × 102 cm 50" × 40" 2016
A stream runs through a dark tunnel lined with irregular stones, at the end is a shaft of light and second tunnel cast in concrete, shaped like a keyhole.
Washington Run, Maryland pigment print 102 × 127 cm 40" × 50" 2016
A stream runs through a dark tunnel lined with stones, at the end in the daylight are two abandoned concrete piers.
Indian Springs, Maryland pigment print 127 × 102 cm 50" × 40" 2016
Shallow stream runs through a series of metal pipes broken by shafts of light.
Hollow Run, Maryland pigment print 127 × 102 cm 50" × 40" 2017
A deep stream runs through two long tunnels, the first cast in concrete, the second in stone. In the second tunnel water is pouring from the roof.
Catoctin Aqueduct, Maryland pigment print 127 × 102 cm 50" × 40" 2016
A creek crossed by two stone bridges the first an aqueduct for the C & O Canal, the second is a railway bridge for the B & O Railway.
Connetquot Brook, Long Island pigment print 102 × 127 cm 40" × 50" 2012
Water from an upper pond pours over a concrete dam at the end of a graffiti lined tunnel.
Coppermine Terrace, Baltimore pigment print 102 × 127 cm 40" × 50" 2013
Water runs out of the end of a concrete tunnel cut into a hillside. From two small holes on either side, under the tunnel red clay and green/black oxidized copper drip out.
Whites Ferry, Virginia pigment print 102 × 127 cm 40" × 50" 2015
Interior of a metal pipe culvert filled with shallow water, in the reflection in the water the frame of an abandoned bridge is visible.
Crum Creek, Philadelphia pigment print 102 × 127 cm 40" × 50" 2013
A creek passes under a highway with multiple concrete piers, at one end is an overgrown forest in the fall.