Re:Collecting Place + Time

Onsite Installation 20' x 40' stone, clay, moss landscape. Noyers sur Serein, France 2014.7.14-20

Re:Collecting Place + Time was an impermanent landscape created in Noyers sur Serein, Burgundy, France. The stone orchestration was inspired by the limestone fragments strewn about the hills above Noyers, and my lifelong impulse to collect rocks. The plan was to gather stones, listen and improvise with the land. Rod DeWeese helped spot the perfect locale – a grade between two walnut trees, adjacent to a crackling wheat field, around the bend from the ruins of Noyer's 13th century chateau. Beginning on July 14th, Bastille Day and ending on July 20th – coincidentally the day of the harvest, stones, clay and moss were collected and arranged as pavers and patterns that spiraled up to the footpath and down to the wheat field, centering around and emanating from a wild strawberry plant. What followed was a serendipitous exchange with place, the rhythm of nature, and the people who stopped-by to help, chat or bring refreshment. It was a call to action just for the sake of creating. Ultimately, the product was having the memory of a collaboration embedded in place + time and an indescribable sensation of b e i n g...