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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:

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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