UnEarthed: Exhibition (Grazing), 2022, aluminum, wool felted on-site and dyed with mugwort collected from the paddock, fabric, and yarn, 28 x 18 x 18 inches
I work with the five sheep that are brought onto Governors Island in the New York Harbor every summer to eat invasive species, such as mugwort and phragmites. As a kind of “shepherd-in-residence,” I help care for them, observe them, and make work about them.
UnEarthed: Exhibition (Grazing) is a collaborative project made with artist and designer Katy Brett. Together, we created a textile covering for UnEarthed, a folded aluminum chair that Katy made as an adaptation of the primordial Orkney Chair, which was originally used by sheep crofters in Orkney, Scotland to protect themselves from harsh weather during lambing season. We collected mugwort from the sheep pens on Governors Island and made dye with it, and incorporated bits of plant matter left behind by the sheep into our felting and weaving processes. The resulting object serves as a memento and monument to the essential labor the sheep perform on the island.
The below images show the covered chair installed on-site in one of the sheep paddocks on Governors Island as part of Flux Factory’s Treasure Island exhibition/scavenger hunt curated by Georgia Muenster in Fall 2022.