aura - a 'Wheatfield'

Agnes Denes - Wheatfield - a confrontation 1982

Agnes Denes's art works pertain to her ideas on environmental issues, human concerns and the exploration of the essences of 'things' as forms of communication.

In May 1982, Lower Manhattan, she began to sow the seeds of her latest public artwork. Herself and a small team went about digging 285 furrows, removing rocks, debris and planting the seeds of the wheat crop they were planning to grow in the dirty Battery Park Landfill. This was a laborious process all of which was done by hand, with each furrow taking up to two to three hours to complete. The field was maintained for four months. An irrigation system was set up and the crops were continuously fertilized, weeded and cleared of 'wheat smut'. On August 16th Agnes and her team harvested the crop, collecting almost 1000 pounds of healthy amber wheat.

I think what i resonates to me about this work is the simplicity of its beauty, the stark retinal contrast presented to the viewer by location and the subtly of its suggestion. The suggestion of vulnerability, power, deteriorating social values and the contrast of economic statuses. The work took up 2 acres (worth approximately 4.5 billion dollars) of busy, decadent Downtown Manhattan - an metropolis of achievement, culture and money. 

Agnes Denes describes the work herself as a 'symbol, a universal concept' ... 'a confrontation of High Civilization' and yet a 'Shangri-la, a small paradise, one's childhood....forgotten values, simple pleasure'.