Visually acute viewers of DOEprojekts’ “Landmark home“ may be able to find forms that appear to read “h-o-m-e” in the center of the circle.
The idea of “home” can imply rest but also movement. Home is often a place from which things and people originate and to which they return. For us, as artists, we think of home as any place that offers acceptance and belonging, renewal and hope. “Home” is a many-faceted keyword.
Franck Mercurio, curator of the 2014 “Avian Spirits” exhibition, where “Landmark home” was installed for the first time, wrote:
“In the face of dwindling biodiversity, hope is the thing that bolsters us: hope in nature’s resiliency and hope in our own abilities to take positive actions. Perhaps our affinity with birds—and tendency to project human characteristics onto our avian cousins—will ultimately inspire us to conserve biodiversity and help sustain those species that still inhabit our planet.”
Our initial research for “Landmark home” focused on how homing pigeons find their way home. Science indicates four main stimuli help certain birds, and other living entities, find their way back to their point of origin: scents/odors, the earth’s electromagnetic energies, the sun’s azimuth, as well as “visual cues,” such as landmarks on the earth.
Thus, using Coreforms, we created a large “visual cue” (landmark) that would be temporarily inscribed in ecologically-sensitive paint on the front lawn of the former home of the Ryersons (Ryerson Steel) in Riverwoods, Illinois. (www.BrushwoodCenter.org).
We plan to continue to offer “Landmark home” as an experience to others who are open to considering the many facets of the idea of “home” and would like to imagine that any and all “avian spirits” – you, us, and many living entities in between — will employ our visual cue as contemplative navigation, ultimately finding a place of belonging, acceptance, and hope.