Marfa Field Record: Branding Process Footage (2013–2016)

This short film documents the working process behind Marfa Field Record, capturing the fabrication and use of custom branding irons employed by Erik Brunetti in the production of rawhide-based works between 2013 and 2016. Shot in and around Marfa, Texas, the footage records Brunetti’s collaboration with a local welder in the construction and testing of the “FTW” and “Filthy” brands, alongside scenes of the surrounding desert landscape and the artist’s field workspace. The film functions as both process documentation and evidentiary record—illustrating the physical, manual methods that underpin Brunetti’s material practice. Its imagery of welding, branding, and travel through the West Texas desert situates the Marfa Field Record works within their true context of production: outside institutional oversight, grounded in direct authorship, labor, and locality. Preserved by the Erik Brunetti Foundation for the Arts as non-commercial documentation of process. Available for research and evidentiary use through the Foundation Archive.