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TEMPORARY-TRANSITIONAL-SITE SPECIFIC-ENVIRONMENTAL- PUBLIC ENGAGEMENT

Earth Press Project is a series of installations and ongoing work engaged in the process of imprinting the earth with words

The Earth Press Project: Witness is a publicly engaged environmental project using an earth-based printing technique to inscribe words collected from communities across America in response to the question, “What change would you like to witness on this earth?’ Word submissions are imprinted in adobe block and presented spilling out of a wooden structure referencing the historic witness houses located at the Minute Man National Historical Park. The word ‘witness’ can hold many meanings today as it did during the time of the Revolutionary War. 

Earth and words—two disparate and common elements. One is heavy, dense, fluid and solid. The other ethereal, weightless and yet weighted in its gravitas. Combine them and the earth is branded, printed with a human thought. Originally an environmental project, Earth Press Project: Witness quickly became socially engaged art. We witnessed the events in the news each day, mirrored in the incoming words for change.

The resulting installation is a collaboration with studio Interns Diane Klement, Michael Weiss, Emily Kiernan, Meryl Braconnier, Brooke van Buiten and Studio Managers Eleanor Reagan and Carley Zarzeka.

Creative professional partners include Reflex Letterpress, Building Heritage and Terra Collaborative. Many thanks to Dirt Tech in Vermont for their donation of clay and sand.

Press:

‘Witness’ Collaborative Art Project Opens at Minute Man NH Park

The Umbrella Community Arts Center. “Earth Press Project: Witness.” [Online] 7 June 2019.

National Park Service, Minute Man National Historical Park. “Earth Press Project: Witness.” [Online] 7 June 2019.