Terrain Biennial 2015 and Cultivator Projects

I’m honored to have been invited by Joanne Aono, an artist I deeply admire, to be the inaugural artist in her new Cultivator Projects both at the Ravenswood location and at Bray Grove Farm about 70 miles southwest of Chicago. At Cultivator (the Ravenswood location), I will be showing a selection of paper and textile pieces from my new series, “Damaged Goods_Small Repairs,” which furthers my investigation into disintegration, tenderness, and the body. The installation at the farm is part of Sabina Ott’s Terrain Biennial, an international celebration of outdoor sculpture and installation produced outside of the museum/institution setting. Ott invites artists to show in the front yards of people’s homes for a month, where the art is visible to the neighborhood. I will be installing at the farm on Labor Day weekend. Here is a mock-up photograph and a short description of the installation project:

Mock-up Photograph of Installation for Terrain Biennial

At Bray Grove Farm, I will install “Study of the Forbidden Stitch,” a three-dimensional line drawing made of sisal twine and real gold thread (old/new stock from Japan used to make obi and kimono) strung between two trees on the lawn of the farm house. Echoing the woven and wound installations of Anne Wilson’s Walking the Warp and To Cross (Walking New York), and the movement of the farmer and his equine helpers as they walk in uneven, hand-drawn lines across the farm’s field, the drawing will be difficult to install and may sag within hours or with the first rain, as the twine may not hold or may even disintegrate. The precarious nature of the drawing will reflect the nature of farming itself, as the farm’s success depends on the consistent physical labor of the farmers and their mules, the weather, and other relatively unpredictable elements. As a series of parallel lines strung low between tree trunks, the drawing will become an added visual to the horizon that is noticeably present at the farm. Bound by a white fence and surrounded by the tall standing corn of neighboring farmers’ fields, the site opens up to the sky on a decidedly human scale, free from the massive verticality of the city just 70 miles northeast.

Bray Grove Farm Opening: Monday, September 7, 3-5 PM
Cultivator Opening: Sunday, September 13, 2-5 PM

For more information about Terrain, please visit the Terrain Biennial website. For more information about Cultivator, visit Cultivator Arts. Also see our Facebook event for more information.


August 25, 2015