I Will Arise and Go Now, has been selected to be a part of the 2012 Amherst, Biennial. This site-specific performance sculpture is staged on the transitional edge of farmland and forest at The Hitchcock Center in Amherst, MA. The life-size cobb (earth, sand, hay, manure) sculptures of farmers performing farm chores, will transition in the elements, and deteriorate from weather, as I build them up from the earth. The choice of representing farm chores reflects the lost skill of collecting eggs, handmilking cows, or spreading seed. It represents the deep rooted work of generations farming the New England landscape. Cobb is an ancient building material used to make housing or structures. Making and using cobb is a skill that I am learning for this installation. Here is a snippet of video from the frst day.
The title, I Will Arise and Go Now, comes from a line in W.B. Yeats poem:
The Lake Isle of Innisfree
I will arise and go now, and go to Innisfree,
And a small cabin build there, of clay and wattles made:
Nine bean-rows will I have there, a hive for the honey-bee;
And live alone in the bee-loud glade.
And I shall have some peace there, for peace comes dropping slow,
Dropping from the veils of the morning to where the cricket sings;
There midnight's all a glimmer, and noon a purple glow,
And evening full of the linnet's wings.
I will arise and go now, for always night and day
I hear lake water lapping with low sounds by the shore;
While I stand on the roadway, or on the pavements grey,
I hear it in the deep heart's core.
William Butler Yeats
