Inspired by Judith Howard’s Field, Carleton Studio Art faculty Kelly Connole, Stephen Mohring, and Danny Saathoff created a collaborative installation that examines the cycle of life. Referencing climate change, agriculture, and the complex relationship between humans and the natural world, this work welcomes interaction with viewers. Locally sourced wood and clay deepen the connection between the landscape that surrounds us and our place within it.
Field Stations, 2016
Steel, wood, clay, seeds, water
Viewers are invited to participate in the meditative process of sorting rudimentary bits of agricultural potential.
Dried native clay from Carleton’s Arboretum offers viewers the chance to rehydrate the earth and nourish some of its inhabitants.
A mechanical device propels bodies to an inevitable end as they dissolve in water to be reclaimed by the earth.
Field, a movement piece conceived and directed by Judith Howard, premiered at Carleton College in November 2015. Field responds to the time-sensitive dilemmas of global climate and agriculture based changes. In an ambiguous narrative with a strong geo-political underbelly, using gesture, chiseled vocabulary, and a little pomp, the piece ritualizes an unresolvable end and the moment that precedes passionate action. Ideas of soil, seeds, parched land, non-continuance, erasure, and the “Dark Mountain Manifesto” fuel the piece. Vandana Shiva and the Seed Freedom movement were instrumental as guides.