Let’s Re-make!

We live in the middle of an agricultural apocalypse - monoculture from horizon to horizon - in central Illinois. The presence of these non-food crops is oppressive, especially when massive quantities of pollen or pesticide from the fields permeates the air making it difficult to breathe. It almost makes us long for the smog and particulates of Chicago, our former home, instead.

We have spent the last several months devouring as much (books, newspapers, magazine articles, mp3s, etc.) as we could about global food crises- dramatic food price increases because of unregulated speculation, failed structural adjustment policies of the IMF/WTO/World Bank, people who have rioted in over 30 countries because they don’t have food, and the ridiculous rush to produce ethanol in the U.S. instead of pursuing renewable, green/clean energy.

So, when we got a call from our friend, artist, and organizer, Mike Wolf, to participate in his exhibition Songs of Returning, Both Silent and Loud our research fit well with the ideas behind the exhibit. Here is a little of what he had to say about the exhibition:

“How do we touch the land and how does it touch us? There is a long, vibrant history of so-called “back to the land movements.” But in fact we have never left the land. We have always been dependent on the land–and the people who work closely with it–for our survival. When we fill the tank, flip a switch, open a bag of chips, sit quietly in a comfy chair, or get on-line–even though we are largely unconscious of it–we are in relationship to the land. We are constantly touching the land and it is constantly touching us back.” – More information and the entire essay can be found at Mike’s website.

The emphasis on land and relationships to land, made us consider our own removed and violent relationship to the land within an economy of extraction. For the exhibition we created a field of dead corn, 52 stalks made of found wood and a year’s worth of the New York Times. The exhibition is at Art of This in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The field will be made into a bonfire to burn monoculture in effigy.

Visit this page to download our new poster and booklet.