Seeds Sown in Confrontation Blossom as Inspiration
Four decades after she made history in a vast expanse of empty landfill in Lower Manhattan, ecological artist Agnes Denes is reprising her signature installation in a similarly vacant tract in Montana.
In May 1982, Ms. Denes and a squad of volunteers (sponsored by the Public Art Fund) planted 2.2 acres of wheat amid the 92 acres of newly created landfill that was slated to become Battery Park City. Near what is now the location of P.S. 276 and the Museum of Jewish Heritage, the group cleared a plot of stones and debris, then hauled in truckloads of fresh loam. Soon after, they dug furrows and planted golden wheat. Four months later, they harvested more than 1,000 pound of cereal grain. (Some of this crop was used to feed the horses of the NYPD’s mounted unit.)
Ms. Denes called the 1982 work “Wheatfield—A Confrontation,” and described it as a statement about “misplaced priorities and deteriorating human values.” She said it was about “food, energy, commerce, world trade, economics. It referred to mismanagement, waste, world hunger, and ecological concerns. It was an intrusion into the citadel, a confrontation of high civilization. Then again it was Shangri-la, a small paradise, one’s childhood, a hot summer afternoon in the country, peace, forgotten values, simple pleasures.”
“Wheatfield—A Confrontation” and “Art on the Beach” (a series organized by Creative Time from 1978-1985) launched Battery Park City’s significant engagement with public art through the years.
Powerful though “Wheatfield” was, it was short-lived. All of the land Ms. Denes and her team had cultivated was to be developed. Soon, the field was fenced in and paved over, making the summer of 1982 the team’s sole planting season.
Until now. Forty-two years later, Ms. Denes has returned to this theme, in a place that both contrasts and resonates with the blank slate that later became Battery Park City. Earlier this year, Bozeman, Montana, was named the fastest growing city in America by the U.S. Census. Its population jumped by more than 40 percent between the 2010 and 2020 tallies, and then grew by another ten percent in the 36 months that ended last December. This growth has led to rampant development, gentrification, and loss of open space. So naturally, this is where Ms. Denes came to create, “Wheatfield—An Inspiration.”
Occupying several acres in Bozeman that were until recently slated for development, the new work features an experimental strain of winter wheat developed by agricultural scientists at Montana State University. The harvest will be processed into flour by local small-scale mills and then used to make bread by an artisanal bakery, which will distribute the loaves throughout the community. As Ms. Denes reflects, “the Wheatfield is hope. There is renewal in the seed. We are planting hope.”