Objects
Any version of the installation, in a large or small space, will include objects that may be sculpture or found object pieces.
Speaking Tree
For my own ancestors plants, and in particular trees, have sheltered us, have taught us, a steady energy that holds us to the Earth. But we have also been farmers, land grabbers, uprooting trees by the thousands. Cutting them down, sawing them up.
The Speaking Tree object holds all of that and as this project grows my ability to describe what the Speaking Tree means will also grow, I hope.
Big! Blue! A stylized Maple with hanging seed copters to move in any breeze. Outdoor sculpture material, hollow, light as possible.Outdoor sculpture material, hollow, light as possible. Allow folks to speak to their ancestors through notes slipped in tree? What happens to notes?
cogs & other machine artifacts
Soft sculptures of cogs, gears, blades, and other artifacts of water mills, will be objects to interact it with.
Will people throw them? maybe they should be restrained with soft chains… ha!
rocking chair
Scavenged or bought second hand. Refinish to be less comfortable. Words, pictures.
Folks can sit in it, but can’t rock. Rockers cut and if possible, chair restrained.
Media & Interactives
Whose Land?
Museum style display with a touchscreen interactive display of Native American lands, and where they correspond to today’s states. A simple awareness tool. we have to become comfortable with and understand how to live with the fact that our ancestors killed to have the place we have now.
Description panel, information panel, interactive touchscreen. There may also be an activity that can be done here besides, looking up with your particular house has taken over native land.
video half wall
Approximately 4 foot high by 5 to 6 feet long, proportions ultimately to be decided by what screens are used. This half wall will have video screens on either side. One side is intended to have a documentary style video. The other side will simply show scenes from the countryside of my ancestors.
I want to show people the effect that bringing in lots of folks to be machinery, then to work machinery, then taking all that away, has on the land. As we continue to turn to technology, without acknowledging its ecological effect, we repeat history, over and over.
Who Made This?
An ancestral story display. We have a family artifact that is an indigo dyed woven cotton coverlet. Made in Missouri in the 1800s, we think. The style of the artwork on the cover it the style of weaving is particular to the Americas of this time. In our story displayed on the wall above, it is understood that the cotton and indigo were grown on a family “farm“ or nearby. It is also told that it was woven by family. in researching this type of artifact, before emancipation enslaved people planted and harvested that indigo and cotton. And it is unclear who were the Weavers of these coverlets. This an area where I am doing more research.
Scenes
Initial digital 3-D maquettes of the installation in a loft style setting
