When I began weaving these barns in the fall of 2006, I had just moved to the country after years in Chicago. I love it when a place is brand new to my eyes: I feel I can see with extraordinary clarity and know it won’t be to long before these sharp novel sights become everyday custom and I lose that x-ray vision. I set right to work and made these strong, modern tapestries. I say modern because they are certainly the simplest, most pared down work I have ever made, and they end up being all about the modern vision of agriculture. You can find the transition between the old, tumble down peeling barns such as Silver Arrow, and the new metal sheds such as Big Green Barn, which are replacing them. They are all surrounded by fields of modern monoculture, something of confounding beauty which suits our modern aesthetic while it ruins the land.

top to bottom:
Big Green Barn #2, 2006, 28″ x 29″
Silver Grain Bin, 2006, 33″ x 33″
Big Red Barn, 2007 , 23″ x 32″
Silver Arrow, 2007 26″ x 33″
Big Green Barn #2, 2007, 31″ x 33″