Kath Fries Studio: Taleamor Park: residency explorations

I'm currently an artist-in-residence at Taleamor Park, an ecology focused retreat for artists, writers, scientists and humanists, in the countryside of Indiana, USA. Continuing with my practice of engaging with present time and place by being attentive to how our senses engage with our surroundings; I'm responding to the seasonal transitions of autumn in this site. There is a plethora of quiet activity here, from the falling colourful leaves, the cornfields ripe and ready to harvest, chipmunks frantically foraging before winter begins, the tapping of woodpeckers, buzz of busy honeybees, scuttling ladybugs, deer grazing, and mushrooms springing up in the fields and woodlands. taleamorpark.org

Kath Fries, Fall - leaves on log, 2017, Taleamor Park

Observing the colourful autumn leaves, reminded me of the British artist Andy Goldsworthy, particularly his ephemeral installations with leaves. I collected an array of yellow, orange and red maple leaves, and placed them according to their tonal transitions along a fallen log. The cyclic intonations of the word 'fall' resonated through this process, from the the season of autumn, being pulled to the ground by gravity, returning to origin as nutrients are decomposing being reabsorbed by the earth for the next cycle of growth and regeneration in spring.

Taleamor Park woodlands

Taleamor Park woodlands' pond

Layered leaves and reflections

Chipmunk peekaboo

Ladybugs (Coccinellidae)

Fungi finds

Beehives at Taleamor Park

Taleamor Park is situated on a 375 acre farm, with woodlands, ponds, organic small grains and vegetables, fallow hillsides and fields, hazelnut and chestnut trees, beehives and acres of conventionally farmed corn, soybeans and wheat. The corn is currently ready to harvest, with the corn heads so ripe and heavy they are hanging upside down pulling against their tall storks, and the long dry leaves are un-peeling and falling away.

Corn field

Corn in the field

Taleamor Park studio with corn leaves, morning

Taleamor Park studio with corn leaves, morning light

Taleamor Park studio with corn leaves, evening

In the spaces alongside the cornfields, various wild weeds are allowed to grow, providing shelter and habitat for birds and insects. The milkweed plant (Asclepias) is seeding at this time of year - and the spreading of this 'weed' is encouraged, as milkweed is the sole food-source of the endangered Monarch butterfly (Danaus plexippus) an iconic pollinator species. Growing milkweed with the intention of supporting butterfly populations is often called butterfly gardening. Such concern for preserving insect habitat is heartening, especially given that recent scientific research has found that global populations of flying insects have fallen by as much as 80% over the past 30 years (more info).
I had just missed the departure of the butterflies on their annual monarch-migration to the warmer south, but I was enchanted watching the wind dispersed milkweed seeds flying up and away across the cornfields, seemingly spreading far and wide. Hearing about local efforts to assist Monarch butterflies by planting and growing milkweed in the hedgerows, I began collecting some of the milkweed seed fluff, scattering the actual milkweed seeds around the hedgerow spaces.

Milkweed seeding by the cornfields, Taleamor Park

Milkweed seeding by the cornfields

Milkweed seeds

Looking around the property for other sculptural materials, I was invited to take some of pieces of a tree that had been cut down after a recent lightening strike. As I've been creating installations with logs, tree stumps and fungi in Sydney over the past 12 months, now finding an entire felled tree on my doorstep seemed opportune...