WORK → SCULPTURE → ARCHIVE

Gallery installation: walls painted with found local earth pigments, indigenous materials and texts about the site.

Installation detail geology diagram drawn on wall, with stone, core samples and text, found local pigments.

Installation detail, with printed site map/guides, wall map, pigment swatches and complete information guide to the interns' research.

Installation detail, Census maps drawn with soil collected on site, land ownership 1875-present, 8 x 10" each on "Clayboard".

Detail, map of land ownership 1885, drawn with soil collected on site, 8 x 10" on "Clayboard".

Detail, map of land ownership 1945, drawn with soil collected on site, 8 x 10" on "Clayboard".

Detail, map of land ownership 1996, drawn with soil collected on site, 8 x 10" on "Clayboard".

Installation of prairie plants, above and underground (L) and of native plants with medicinal uses by the American Indians (R), with map and text concerning tribes that previously lived on the landscape around Salina, KS.

Detail of prairie plants, above ground and underground, with "roots" constructed by the artist using string, glue, natural latex rubber, soil, one sample burned to demonstrate prairie fires still used to control growth.

Flags, 24' T on fence rows, one mile x one mile.

Dug earth and flags, 5 x 5 x 2'.

Trail Marker/ Earth Core Sample extracted from exact site it marks, 4' x 2" diameter.

Cleared remains of drystone farmhouse cellar, with shelf containing hand and electric appliances, blender, electric mixer, electric can opener, whisk, grater, potato smasher and hand crank can opener.

Landscape Palimpsest

A Collaborative Project About the Layered Story of the Land at the Land Institute, Salina County, Kansas, 1996

Collaborators: Karen McCoy, Brian Donahue-environmental historian and Director of Education at the Land Institute, Interns: Jim Boyd B.S. Mathematics, Aron Gannon B.S. in Ecosystems Biology, Jerry Glover, Soil Science, Tammy Hinnman B.S. Horticulture/Food Crops, Robin Mittenthal B.A. Biology, Jon Richardson B.A. Biology, Thomas Ruppert B.A. Literature and Philosophy, Sheri Walz Environmental Studies.

The project included a gallery installation and a walk in the landscape. The gallery was the repository for the research done by the interns, distilled and presented graphically by McCoy. The palette used on the gallery walls was dominated by natural pigment colors found on The Land Institute's grounds, three pigments are from Matfield Shale found east of Saline County. The Landscape Palimpsest walk took viewers into the landscape that was the subject of our discussion and research for several months. The collaborators considered walking as inherently valuable since it slows our pace and allows for enhanced perception. PALIMPSEST walk encompasses some of the geophysical and cultural history of the place - it explores how nature, culture and agriculture have interacted over time at this place. The walk was designed to reveal some of this to the viewer. This was a project in which viewers participated by walking, seeing and remembering.

detailed information on the project pdf