Ruminations / A Series (in development)
To ruminate:
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a deep or considered thought about something. "philosophical ruminations about life and humanity"
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the action of chewing the cud. "cows slow down their rumination"
Ruminations is an ongoing research and land art project that involves the exploration of relations between rural ecologies, climate change, indigenous land stewardship practices, labor, and textiles. A specific emphasis is placed on the sensual and solastalgic embodied relationship between human and animal bodies and the landscape.
The first iteration in the series was supported by Franconia Sculpture Park in Minnesota. During the 2021 artist residency program a large scale sculpture was built and installed within the park. The work is currently on view through 2022.
Ongoing field research is being conducted within a shepherding apprenticeship at Hollywood Farm based in Maryland where sustainable shepherding practices are the focus.
Ruminations / For Twenty-Five Sheep
Franconia Scuplture Park, Shafer, Minnesota, 2021
Whetstone Farm wool processed and woven on site from twenty-five Dorset/Ile de France crosses, Franconia limestone sourced along the Saint Croix River, repurposed poultry and snow fencing, and salvaged rebar from the work site.
Ruminating on ways to find intentional balance between land, body, and history María Puig de la Bellacasa proposes this balance can begin with soil. Soil care has the potential to alter our future if we begin to understand how entangled and intimate we are with the environment we live within. Weaving together regenerative farming techniques and indigenous land-stewardship practices can become portals for deepening our understanding of the anthropocene and the intentional actions we must make presently - moving forward. It is a durational commitment.
This piece is a walking piece. I hope along the walk you observe the intimate-entangled relationship of the landscape created between the soil, grasses, wool, fencing, and your own individual body. The piece will remain as long as the land allows it to be.
My deepest thanks to Emily and Klaus at Whetstone Farm.
