What an incredibly striking and modern work of art... AND that it's in the Gilcrease Museum in Oklahoma seems particularly poignant and apt!! WONDERFUL to make this video with Laura Fry from that museum too... many thanks to you both!!
It’s funny, I live on the Palouse and it’s post harvest with millions of acres of wheat, garbanzos, canola, etc. in their skeletal forms and it bears such a similar resemblance (save color), there is only prairie grass at the edge of roads, it has that same feeling of hopelessness for nature. Amateurs look at miles of crops and think it’s so pretty, but it’s not sustainable nor does it support wildlife. Things don’t change, conservation is the word: keep the land safe so it can be farmed, forget about prairie grass or birds or insects. Never a failed crop, but fewer trees, little plant diversity, and with satellite-run mechanization, every inch is reclaimed by farming.
Oh wow... The colors and patterns got to me immediately. The entire erosion series is lovely, especially "Mother Earth Laid Bare." You can find meaning in anything. The crucifix is obvious, I'm not sure about the serpentine river thing. It's fun to speculate about, though. I could make a case for the ousting from Eden, the Moses in Meribah incident, etc.
5:10 I fail to see how any other economic/political systems would have changed this outcome. It doesn't make a difference if the land is privately owned for profit or if it's owned by the state, poor farming practices are poor farming practices.
The point the artist was making and that the speakers were explaining was that the land should have remained prairie. That the drive behind the unsustanable farming practices that destroyed this fragile environment was the incentive of quick profits.
@@smarthistory-art-history Of course the land should have remained prairie, that's beside the point though (unless you're trying to argue that the land would have remained prairie under a different economic/political system). Whether it's the incentive of quick profits or a misguided desire/decree to "put the prairies to use to feed the masses", no economic/political system is lacking the potential to cause this destruction of a fragile environment with poor farming practices. In the video (2:00), the speakers made very clear that Hogue was placing the blame of this destruction on the new use of industrial equipment with a disregard for the contours of the land and for the needs of the land. The key here is poor farming practices, not the incentive of quick profits.
What an incredibly striking and modern work of art... AND that it's in the Gilcrease Museum in Oklahoma seems particularly poignant and apt!! WONDERFUL to make this video with Laura Fry from that museum too... many thanks to you both!!
Thanks. Quite relevant to our times. Only if he were alive to see the mess today.
It’s funny, I live on the Palouse and it’s post harvest with millions of acres of wheat, garbanzos, canola, etc. in their skeletal forms and it bears such a similar resemblance (save color), there is only prairie grass at the edge of roads, it has that same feeling of hopelessness for nature. Amateurs look at miles of crops and think it’s so pretty, but it’s not sustainable nor does it support wildlife.
Things don’t change, conservation is the word: keep the land safe so it can be farmed, forget about prairie grass or birds or insects.
Never a failed crop, but fewer trees, little plant diversity, and with satellite-run mechanization, every inch is reclaimed by farming.
Oh wow... The colors and patterns got to me immediately.
The entire erosion series is lovely, especially "Mother Earth Laid Bare."
You can find meaning in anything. The crucifix is obvious, I'm not sure about the serpentine river thing. It's fun to speculate about, though. I could make a case for the ousting from Eden, the Moses in Meribah incident, etc.
4:22, Amazing work on landscape 🌾
5:10 I fail to see how any other economic/political systems would have changed this outcome. It doesn't make a difference if the land is privately owned for profit or if it's owned by the state, poor farming practices are poor farming practices.
The point the artist was making and that the speakers were explaining was that the land should have remained prairie. That the drive behind the unsustanable farming practices that destroyed this fragile environment was the incentive of quick profits.
@@smarthistory-art-history Of course the land should have remained prairie, that's beside the point though (unless you're trying to argue that the land would have remained prairie under a different economic/political system). Whether it's the incentive of quick profits or a misguided desire/decree to "put the prairies to use to feed the masses", no economic/political system is lacking the potential to cause this destruction of a fragile environment with poor farming practices.
In the video (2:00), the speakers made very clear that Hogue was placing the blame of this destruction on the new use of industrial equipment with a disregard for the contours of the land and for the needs of the land.
The key here is poor farming practices, not the incentive of quick profits.
@@mrmines2000 I agree, well said.