Wheatfield Flashcards
Made “Wheatfield-A Confrontation: Battery Park Landfill, Downtown - With Agnes Denes Standing in the Field”
Agnes Denes
Hungarian-born American artist whose practice is based in NYC
Agnes Denes
Studied at the New School & Columbian University, beginning their career as a poet before pursuing visual art full-time
Agnes Denes
One of the first artists in postwar decades to articulate an explicitly ecological direction for art
Agnes Denes
Made “Rice/Tree/Burial”
Agnes Denes
How does Denes describe “Rice/Tree/Burial”
As a manifesto
A creative work that sets out an agenda for radical change
Manifesto
How many components are in “Rice/Tree/Burial”
3
Where was “Rice/Tree/Burial” carried out
Sullivan County, NY
Explain the rice in “Rice/Tree/Burial”
The rice is actual rice that Denes planted, as a gesture and actual means to sustain life
Explain tree in “Rice/Tree/Burial”
The tree is a group of mature trees that’s wrapped in chains which creates a zigzag pattern of metal reaching up toward the sky, as a symbolic expression of human damage and interference with the natural world
What is the zigzag pattern of the trees in “Rice/Tree/Burial” symbolizing
Expression of human damage and interference with the natural world
Explain burial in “Rice/Tree/Burial”
The burial staged was of burying a haiku poem she had written which she didn’t keep a record of since part of her expression was to give up human thought and the conventions of poetic form into the earth
Where was Denes asked to recreate “Rice/Tree/Burial”
Artpark, an outdoor space for site-based artworks in Lewiston, NY
What was different about the rice in Denes recreation of “Rice/Tree/Burial”
Rice was planted on half-acre land, but its growth was affected by mutations from contaminants in the soil
Where did the contaminants from Artpark arose from
To its proximity to Love Canal, an abandoned waterway off of the Niagara River in Niagara Falls
How many tons of toxins were dumped by the Hooker Chemical Company in the mid-20th century
21,000 tons
Dumped 21,000 tons in Love Canal in the mid-20th century
Hooker Chemical Company
What is the Hooker Chemical Company called now
The Occidental Petroleum Company
What was different about the tree in Denes recreation of “Rice/Tree/Burial”
Nothing- the trees were still chained
What was different about the burial in Denes recreation of “Rice/Tree/Burial”
She didn’t bury a poem but instead a time capsule that’s encased in 9 ft of concrete, with a plaque indicating that it shouldn’t be opened until 2979
When should the time capsule in the recreation of “Rice/Tree/Burial” be opened
2979
How thick is the concrete in which the time capsule in “Rice/Tree/Burial” encased in
9 feet
What additional thing was added into the recreation of “Rice/Tree/Burial”
A fourth element - a act of filming the precipice of Niagara Falls for a sustained period of 7 days, while propped out over the falls on a constructed ledge
How many days was there for filming the precipice of Niagara for the recreation of “Rice/Tree/Burial”
7 days
What is “Wheatfield” most widely remembered for
Its work of largest scale
How many acres of wheat was grown in Lower Manhattan for “Wheatfield”
2
Where was the wheat grown for “Wheatfield”
Lower Manhattan
Where was the land for “Wheatfield” originally located prior to the 9/11 terrorist attacks
Directly beneath the World Trade Center towers, near Wall Street and in view of the Statue of Liberty
The complexity of “Wheatfield” grows out of its
confrontations
Rather than using rich agricultural soil for the wheat, what was used
polluted land, full of debris
What was the land on which the wheat was planted previously used as
the Battery Park Landfill
When did Denes harvest her crop for “Wheatfield”
August 1982
What happened to the land after Denes harvested the wheat
The land was plowed to build high-end real estate
How much was “planting and harvesting a field of land” worth
$4.5 billion
What did “Wheatfield” represent to Denes
food, energy, commerce, world trade, and economies
How many cities did the harvested grain travel to
28 cities
What exhibition was the harvested grains part of
“The International Art Show for the End of World Hunger”
Organized “The International Art Show for the End of World Hunger”
The Minnesota Museum of Art
How many photographs of “Wheatfield” are commonly in circulation
9
What photographs of “Wheatfield” are included in the 9 that are commonly circulated
Shots of the barren landfill prior to planting, images of golden wheat underneath the World Trade Center, views of the wheat being harvested, and an aerial shot of the rectangular patch of earth on which it was planted
2 different ways of imagining human life in “Wheatfield”
The one in dense, urban construction and the other in open, pastoral farmland
Due to the 2 contrasting locations, “Wheatfield” looks like
A manipulated image, where one photograph has been collaged with another, either through printing multiple negatives or cutting printed photographs
Made “Tree Mountain”
Agnes Denes
Denes made “Tree Mountain” the same year she was making
Wheatfield
For “Tree Mountain” what does she return to
time capsules
(Tree Mountain) Denes thought of trees as their own kind of
living time capsule
(Tree Mountain How many trees were in Denes proposed pattern and how many people planted them
10,000 trees and 10,000 people to plant them
(Tree Mountain) What was the idea for the pattern
Intricate geometric spiral
How long did it take Denes to find the funds for “Tree Mountain”
A decade
Who funded Denes for “Tree Mountain”
The government of Finland
Where did the government of Finland announce they are funding for Denes for “Tree Mountain
1992 Earth Summit Rio de Janeiro
(Tree Mountain) How many trees were actually planted and how many people planted them
11,000 trees and 11,000 people
(Tree Mountain) For how long does the person who planted the tree have ownership of that tree
For a period of 400 years
