Dan Rawlings carefully selects his mediums: an advertising sign (for gasoline, cars, gas companies, etc.), a fire extinguisher, a jerrycan, or on a larger scale, a van or a grain silo. He then hand-cuts intricate patterns into them using a plasma cutter, creating delicate floral and vegetal motifs within the material.

Sometimes, he takes it even further, aiming to evoke a new perception in the viewer by projecting light through the object and its hollowed-out sections, thereby casting a true shadow theater on the surrounding walls and floor. This poetic regeneration breathes life and form into nature and invites the viewer to reflect on their relationship with the artwork and the meaning it conveys.

This feeling is even more intense in his monumental installations, where one senses the passage of time and feels suspended between past, present, and future. Much like Daniel Arsham, who immerses the viewer in a deserted world where only remnants of our industry and technology remain, Dan Rawlings symbolically highlights the essential—showing nature reclaiming its rights over objects.