land art

When I visited fieldwork in spring 2010, I fell in love with it and the idea it represents. fieldwork shows us that you can find art unexpectedly in unusual places. The element of surprise at this location gives artwork a completely different context than when one finds it in a gallery space. 
In thinking about my work for fieldwork I imagined the quiet, mysterious, pine forest as a perfect background for my work. I decided that my work should address two simple things: mending and grafting trees.For me sculpture is a process of thinking and ideas which first evolve on paper and later in form.  After a year of thinking, drawing and knitting, the work for this location was ready to install. The artificial knitted branches will be up for half of the year; silent witnesses of season changes. During most of this time, the branches will stand out awkwardly from the trees, looking like tree prosthesis or grafted branches.  They will show visitors the way out, the way in, or give them the freedom to be lost in the absolute silence of a pine forest.

OOH, AH, WOW is installed at Fieldwork and opened on September 11, 2011.  It has been a challenging opportunity to create outdoor words for a field exhibition in terms in materials and scale.  In the coming months, I will add a few blog posts to this page with images of the process of creating the work, installing the work, repairing the work (after a incident with a 10 yr old ATV enthusiast) and the ensuing hay mite bites from the hay stuffing days. As the season changes from beautiful warm September  to the decent into winter, I will post the changes in the word works as may slump and alter as they are affected by the elements. It will be interesting to see what is left come springtime...I want to thank the Fieldwork Collective for their support with this project and a special thank you to the installation team: Jason, Jenny, Susie and Cam.  It would not have been possible to bring this work to life without you. If you are travelling down Hwy 7 in the next 6 months, turn onto Old Brooke Road for a look-see at the field.

fieldwork has been getting a bit of a 'nod' this month in response to our latest installation.  Amy Hogue from the EMC/Perth News and Julie Druker from The Frontenac News both came out to watch Marc Walter working on his creation,  'The Last Sowers' -  two 'figures' now gracing the end of the field...

Here are links to their articles:

  Fieldwork - Exploring the Possibilities of 'Land Art' by Amy Hogue

  New Work in Winter Fields by Julie Druker

Hope you have a chance to come out with your boots, skis or snowshoes and have a look this winter!

-Susie