Crisis Farm: Seed to Table
Maryann Worrell and Doug Mott | May 2 through September 30, 2015
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Crisis Farm at Street Road
Saturday, May 9, 2015, 12-6pm
Opening reception and planting day rain date: May 16, 12-6pm Saturday, June 20 Re-planting day - workshop for schools please email us to enquire about participating Saturday, August 1, 2015, 12-6pm Harvesting event and community meal and potluck Come together and share a meal, picnic style, with the beautiful vegetables that have grown in the Crisis Farm Table over the summer. Tomatoes, peppers, salad greens, basil, parsley, and edible flowers have been thriving. Pairing the on-site harvest with more vegetables and herbs from home we will make a great meal and mix some herb infused cocktails. Concurrent Street Road exhibitions
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Crisis Farm: Seed to Table was an extension of artist Maryann Worrell's Crisis Farm Lab, built in Ireland in the summer of 2014, an installation of a portable garden and gallery exhibition examining the plight of our natural food resources. A new iteration of Crisis Farm was installed at Street Road Artists Space in 2015, continuing to examine the food industry by drawing attention to the current state of contemporary farming and the circumstances farmers face in today’s corporate fast food and big agro nation, encouraging the audience to learn more about the origin of food outside of a supermarket.
Artists Maryann Worrell and Doug Mott built an interactive, participatory environment at Street Road, inviting collaboration with local and regional individuals, communities, and institutions. The artists interviewed local farmers via farm visits and a questionnaire that asked about their experiences running a farm and where they see the future of small farming. Worrell and Mott also visited with school aged children and talked to them about where food comes from, what good food choices are, and about growing their own food. The artists drew inspiration from these interactions and interviews and created a gallery exhibition and outdoor installation. These communities also participated in the installation of the work, a 16’x4' family style table wooden table made from recycled materials, with a built-in centerpiece: an 18"x13' garden box. This is a multi-layered participatory project in which the audience is encouraged to visit the site several times over a three month period. On opening day of the exhibition (May 2nd) the table included the large garden box, filled with soil, and individual settings around the table including a bowl filled with soil, a small dish of seeds, a cup of water and garden tool utensils. The audience was asked to sit at the table and plant a seed at their table setting, several opportunities to plant a seed can be at each setting depending on the size of the audience. (The seeds will be tended by the Street Road Artists Space and the artists after opening day.) This is the first moment of connecting the ideas of where food come from and the growing process. The gallery also has an installation of works inspired by the community interactions. The young participants were be asked to return in June for a “planting party” where they will help the artists move the seedlings from the original planting bowls to the large garden planter in the center of the table. This was an hour session which included healthy refreshments. This activity continued the process of learning where food comes from and how to grow it yourself. The final process was the closing of the event on August 1, where all were invited back to participate in the harvest. All of the salad greens and various vegetables were picked, cleaned, cut and shared in a family-style meal. Potluck dishes from garden grown vegetables were encouraged to be shared. Photos and stories of the previous events will be displayed on the closing evening. We gain knowledge through our experiences. These experiences help us improve our skills and open our eyes to new ideas and perspectives. The Crisis Farm: Seed to Table project, encourages community growth through action and conversation. It aims to highlight the state of the small contemporary farm today and where it is headed, also to provide hands-on education about where food comes from, how an individual can grow their own and/or buy locally organic and reap the benefits. |