Installations
Homestead
steel, poplar, gold leaf - approx. 7' x 10' x 50'
Stone Quarry Hill Art Park, Cazenovia, New York
In Homestead, a simple ten-foot by twelve-foot house form is outlined in dark steel. Moving through this open form, lines of 365 upright wooden posts form a dense row of stalks, each streaked with a vein of gold leaf.
In the late 1800’s and early 1900’s, when the government was encouraging farmers to settle the West, a ten-by-twelve house was the minimum sized structure required to establish a land claim. My grandmother grew up in such a homestead in North Dakota, and has written about the hardships of the farming life.
Yet it is also a life of independence, determination, and the tangible rewards of hard work. The bounty of the harvest is labor made visible, bringing forth treasure from the humblest of sources. In this installation the virtual harvest passes through the simple house and beyond — the hardship is only a temporary phase, one story amid the continuous cycle of the seasons.
Please visit the Project Notes section for photos of the work in progress.