After Harvest (2019)
Glass, Solder, Wood (Cherry), Light
17″ x 17″ x 8″
In 2017, work began on developing the field to the west of the orchard I grew up on into housing. My immediate reaction to this was one of sadness. I had watched the sun set over this field countless times in my childhood, had seen my dog zig zag happily through the grain, his black wispy tail the only thing emerging above the whispering heads of golden barley.
When harvest was over and the hay had been cut and dried, it was baled and stacked into a structure resembling the form represented by glass in this piece. These tall rectangular prisms of prickly bales abounded across the agricultural land of the Willamette Valley. They are at once in substance symbols of agricultural utilitarianism and works of architecture signaling the underlying tide of human “progress”.
After Harvest reflects upon themes of nostalgia and the relationship between memories and bygone locations while simultaneously challenging the bucolic American ideal of boundless farmland in the face of modern development.