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610 869 4712

725 Street Road Cochranville, PA 19330 
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​Kaori Homma, ‘Homma Meridian’
First included in the exhibition Compass – 2012

The Homma Meridian was installed at Street Road in 2012. Conceived by the artist as an ephemeral work, the meridian has been placed at sites around the world, from Paris to Budapest.  As with the Greenwich Prime Meridian Line, boundaries and demarcations are necessarily a means of orientating ourselves within the increasingly multi-cultural, multi-ethnic social context we face in this shrinking world. However, at the same time these demarcations and boundaries also create tensions and barriers. The idea behind the “Homma Meridian” project is to draw an imaginary line which points to the North and South Pole in a specific location, using ephemeral material, which the artist suggests is a substitute for the “Prime Meridian”. The project highlights the imaginary nature of the boundaries that exist in our mind.
 
While still ephemeral and intended to one day wear away, the Homma Meridian at Street Road has become a longer term installation. Segments of it are painted on two buildings on our site, in non-weatherproof paint, and these slowly erode over time. Other segments cross the land, and take on changing forms each year – in 2013 the line was planted with wildflowers. Since then it has been allowed to run wild. In Spring 2016, our neighbors Stellalou Farm introduced two beehives to Street Road, and the fed from and pollinated it all summer. 
Responses:
2A.  Homma Meridian Stone
​In 2014 Kaori Homma blended The Street Road Rocks with the Homma Meridian project by creating the Meridian Stone, carving it with the 0°0'0" coordinates. The stone is mailed from person to person around the world: each participant sets it in a place of significance, photographs it, and writes a short paragraph about this placement. This project is ongoing, and will eventually result in a publication.
 
Participants so far include (with place chosen for stone):
Iain Cotton - Bath UK, Komori Haruka - Ueno Park Tokyo Japan, Natsumi Seo - Rikuzen Takata, Japan; Syo Yoshihama - on a train from Tokyo to Kyoto; Kaori Homma - Greenwich, UK; Ken McLaughlin - London, UK; Nahyun Park - Gunsan, Korea; Pam Brabants - Wellington, New Zealand; Kaya Hanasaki - Okinawa, Japan; Shino Yanai – Korea; Zijie Yang - Neihu, Taiwan; Ema Chang - Beitou River, Taiwan; Showzoo Tsai – Taiwan; Richard van der Aa – Paris; Rudolf Pacsika - Budapest, Hungary; Odira Umuziranenge – Rwanda; Emily Artinian – Philadelphia; Luisa Roa - Medellin, Columbia; Rhonda Hershey - Abijian, Ivory coast; Susan Marie Brundage – State College, PA.
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2B. Kaori Homma’s meditation on working with Street Road; influence on work in another country:

​2C. 2016-17 installation of Homma Meridian installed at Stave Hill Ecological Park, South London, UK, influenced by the interaction of the Cochranville Homma Meridian with Stellalou Farm’s bees
2E. Tools from Crisis Farm: Seed to Table by artist Maryann Worrell. Together with  Doug Mott, Worrell built an interactive, participatory environment at Street Road that invited collaboration with local and regional individuals, communities, and institutions. Their picnic table with a planter bed remains on site next to the Homma Meridian, and also feeds the bees with its bounty of herbs. Pictured: hand crafted utensils for the Crisis Farm table by Worrell.
2D.​ StellaLou Farm bees – raised at Street Road this past Spring. StellaLou Farm is a permaculture site and project located nearby in Cochranville. Among many other things, they keep bees (and make delicious honey and mead). The location of these 2 hives at Street Road helps to distribute and increase the bee population. 
2E. Stella Lou Farm Bees - Infrared photo taken by Micheal Ann Velicky 
2F. Hooked Rug by Jane Artinian 

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Visiting (Updated Winter 2022):
Please check our website or social media before visiting as our hours are subject to change depending on weather and volunteer availability. Masks are required and we are continuing to  limit numbers of people inside at one time. 
 
HOURS
Street Road winter hours: Fridays and Saturdays 11-3 pm and by appointment. The library box outside is open 24/7. 
Little Free Library: Thursdays 12-4pm, Fridays 10am-2pm and Saturdays 10am-2pm and by appointment. 

Our Little Free Library outdoor boxes at both sites are open 24/7 and are regularly restocked.

Please call 610-869-4712 or email to set up visits outside our regularly scheduled hours. 
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We are currently seeking volunteers for both locations: email us to enquire. We look forward to hearing from you!

DIRECTIONS
to Street Road here. 
to The Little Free Library here.

A word about 'here':
We acknowledge that we are on the ancestral lands of the Lenape, original people of the mid-Atlantic area, forced west by British and US governments. Most Delaware Indian tribe descendants are now located in Oklahoma, Wisconsin, and Ontario. Lenni Lenapes in Pennsylvania are not officially recognized as tribes by the United States, though an estimated 5000 Lenape Nation descendants live in the Delaware River area. We pay respects to the Lenape people both past and present. Please consider the many legacies of violence, displacement and settlement that form part of our collective histories. While increased public recognition of these legacies and processes of redress such as Canada's Truth and Reconciliation Commission are positive steps, concrete focus on return of land and land rights remains a distant horizon.
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