Petrographics (CA)

Rodgecrest, CA. Tours of the ancient petroglyphs in the nearby Coso mountains depart from the Maturango Museum in Indian Wells Valley. Sadly, I arrived too early in the season to take a trip. So I just wandered around the museum, where I experienced the petroglyphs in a different way.

As pictorial representations of a "character", glyphs are a precursor to letter design. Were these glyphs meant to to be pictorial art or to communicate as a language? They may have been expressions of hunting/gathering rituals. But I prefer the theory that they were the "perpetuation of the cosmic order of the universe."

At Maturango they jump from the rocks to become dimensional cut out graphics. I'm assuming they're taking liberties with scale to get to these human size figurative sculptures.

Smaller vinyl figures stick to the windows like guardians.

More glyphs surround the playground at the nearby Petroglyph Park. 

They're described as "artistic representations of the work created by indigenous natives" using the same techniques and "to appear much as what you would see"...

How do we experience reproductions differently than originals? 

As reproductions become more common, are we becoming more accepting of them as a substitute experience?

They take on a life of their own.

Are we becoming less and less critical of variations, artistic or design liberties in reproductions? 

Without their original context and meaning, "representations" become more visually decorative, gratuitous.