ONLY BIRDS SING THE MUSIC OF HEAVEN IN THIS WORLD

Museum of Craft and Folk Art March 23–July 7, 2012 Curated by Harrell Fletcher LIKE A REALLY GOOD CARROT Harrell Fletcher

The title of the exhibition I’ve curated for I started to wonder about the possibility of the Museum of Craft and Folk Art in San applying some of the ways small-scale agri- Francisco is a poem by Issa, a Japanese culture functions to my practice as an artist. Haiku poet who wrote in the early nine- Even when I was still in graduate school I teenth century. The poem was originally had questioned the value of art making and used as a working title for the show, while said many times that I hoped my work could I was fi guring out what exactly the show be as accessible and appealing as “a really good was going to be about. I like Issa a lot, so carrot.” Needless to say most of my fellow art I often use his poetry in my work. Once students didn’t seem to understand or relate to we fi gured out that the show would focus what I was talking about. Regardless, I have on the intersection of art and agriculture spent the last couple of decades attempting to it was not clear if the title still made sense make artwork that is locally meaningful and but the way that I interpret the poem is as accessible although none of my projects so far a comment on the impossibility of trying has actually achieved the high value I place on to make “art” when “nature” does a much really good vegetables. better job of art making. So we decided It has been interesting to me to observe to keep the title since most of the people an ever-expanding set of agriculture related included in the show had connections to art projects developing over the last several THE 1965-1970 DELANO nature through agriculture of one sort or years. By that I don’t just mean art that another. In a way, they all collaborate with represents agriculture, (though in the aspects of the natural world rather than exhibition we include a few examples of try to make work that is separate and more that sort of thing from the past, along GRAPE STRIKE AND BOYCOTT about their own individual culture. with an amazing series of documentary Two years after I received my MFA from photographs from the Delano grape Cesar Chavez Foundation the California College of Arts and Crafts, I boycott in the 1960s). Instead, I mean went back to school projects by artists, These photos, courtesy of the Cesar walkouts on Mexican Independence Day, to study organic art related people, Chavez Foundation, represent part of an September 16, 1965. farming. The pro- and organizations exhibit depicting the Delano Grape Strike From the beginning this was a different gram I attended was The products that that are site and presently on display at the National Chavez kind of strike: Cesar insisted the Latino and at UC Santa Cruz audience specific, Center in Keene, California. Filipino strikers share the same picket lines, and is called “The farmers produce have participatory, and More than 46 years ago, on September 8, strike kitchen and union hall. He asked Apprenticeship in localized. 1965, Filipino American grape pickers, strikers to take a solemn vow to remain Ecological Horti- an obvious function Let me lay out a members of the Agricultural Workers nonviolent. The strike drew unprecedented culture and Sustain- little analogy that Organizing Committee, walked out on support outside the Central Valley, from able Food Systems.” (to be eaten) I think is useful to strike against Delano-area table and wine other unions, church activists, students, I lived and worked consider. I’d like grape growers, protesting years of poor pay Latinos and other minorities, and civil with forty other to compare agri- and conditions. The Filipinos asked Cesar rights groups. Cesar led a 300-mile march, apprentices on a farm on the campus of business and the commercial art world to Chavez, who led a mostly Latino farm or perigrinacion (pilgrimage), from Delano UCSC. It was a really interesting experi- small farming and localized art projects. workers union, the National Farm Workers to Sacramento, placing the farm workers’ ence to learn about farming and localized In agribusiness vast tracts of land are used Association, to join their strike. plight squarely before the conscience of the food distribution systems after having spent to produce a small number of crops (using Cesar and other NFWA leaders believed American people. most of my life learning about how to make chemicals, etc… though that part doesn’t it would be years before their fledgling Following Gandhi’s example, Cesar art and how to function in the art world. really fit in the analogy) that are then union was ready for a strike. He also knew fasted for 25 days in 1968, to rededicate Young artists and farmers looked similar, shipped to remote locations around the growers historically pitted one race against his movement to nonviolence. Dr. Martin but ideologically they are complete oppo- country or world so that people can buy another to break field walkouts. Cesar’s Luther King Jr. wrote Cesar, expressing sites. Artists are trained to value original- produce that may not be able to be grown union voted to join the Filipino workers’ continues, page 2 ity, non-functionality, individualism, and locally or is out of season. Due to the time they generally all assume that if their art is and potential damage involved in shipping, shown and sold it will be the responsibil- crops that are under ripe and super hardy ity of a gallerist to handle it. Small farmers are preferred over ripe and delicate varieties share information and ideas and if there are that might rot or become damaged during positive results, it is expected that others the shipping process. In the traditional will try doing the same thing or something commercial version of the art world, artists similar. The products that farmers produce make objects in studios that they hope will have an obvious function (to be eaten), be shipped across the country or world to be and functional distribution and sales are shown and possibly sold in galleries. The art just as important as growing high quality works that are produced tend to be easily vegetables and fruits. As a result of the transported, and “universally understood” focus that small farmers have had on how so that they can go to any white cube to market their product and because idea space and function and be understood in sharing is not considered stealing within the same way. By conditioning artists into the farm world, CSAs, farmers’ markets, making work for this system, they wind up and community gardens have fl ourished in gravitating towards making objects, devel- the last few decades. oping marketable signature styles, and While attending the farming program, creating work that isn’t literal or specifi c in and then later working on several small farms, continues, back page

PIE RANCH FARM SONGS: SOIL KITCHEN LIFE IN THE MIDDLE OF CONCRETE PROJECT GROW FARM STORE SALINAS FARM WORKER PORTRAIT FARM SCHOOL Joyce Grimm LISTENING TO AGRICULTURE Futurefarmers Natasha Boas looks back at Natasha Wheat @ MOCFA John Cerney and Nolan Calisch and page 2 Jen Delos Reyes Amy Franceschini The Farm with PK Steffan page 6 Sadie Harmon Eliza Gregory Molly Sherman page 3 page 3 page 4–5 page 7 page 7 back page 2 Only Birds Sing the Music of Heaven in this World from page 1 solidarity. The fast ended during a mass in Delano with Senator Robert F. Kennedy, who said he was there “out of respect for one of the heroic fi gures of our time.” Cesar knew the farm workers couldn’t win with a strike alone. So for the fi rst time in American history, Cesar and the United Farm Workers (the result of a 1966 merger between the Agricultural Workers Orga- nizing Committee and the National Farm Workers Association) turned to a boycott during a major labor dispute. Hundreds of grape strikers traveled across the U.S. and Canada, telling their stories and organizing support. Thousands of supporters tirelessly helped organize the boycott. Millions stopped eating grapes. By 1970, table grape growers signed their fi rst union contracts, granting workers better pay, benefi ts, and protections. In the decades that followed, Cesar Chavez and the UFW continued using nonviolent strikes, boycotts, marches and fasts to help farm workers stand up for their rights and gather support from ordinary Americans to aid their struggles. Those efforts continue to this day through the efforts of the United Farm Workers of America and the Cesar Chavez Foundation. states reaching 500,000 daily listeners and his last quarter century. It includes a 7,000 center in the restored 17,000 square foot * * * provides educational tutoring programs for square foot Visitor Center with large mission-style structure where Cesar held Cesar Chavez Foundation is a non-profi t, under-served children as well as service galleries that now features the Delano community gatherings and meetings. Villa La tax-exempt organization founded under a learning to preserve Cesar Chavez’s legacy. Grape Strike exhibit plus Cesar’s carefully Paz now hosts space, resources and capacity different name by Cesar Chavez in 1966. It also operates the National Chavez Center preserved offi ce and library, and beautifully building for civic, business, labor, community It builds or renovates and operates thou- on 187 acres amid oaks and spectacular landscaped Memorial Gardens around and other non-profi t groups to meet and plan sands of units of high-quality affordable rock outcroppings in California’s Tehachapi his gravesite. On the north grounds is the in the shadow of Cesar’s legacy. housing, runs a nine station educational Mountains at La Paz in Keene, where recently renovated Villa La Paz, a sprawling For more on the Cesar Chavez Founda- Spanish-language radio network in four Cesar Chavez lived and worked during world-class conference and educational tion, visit www.chavezfoundation.org.

Companion Bakeshop & Mission Pie— and we have a Community Supported PIE RANCH Agriculture program serving our Mission High School students. Joyce Grimm EDUCATE Our mission is to inspire and connect people Youth Education & Leadership Development to know the source of their food, and to An integral piece of Pie Ranch’s vision is work together to bring greater health to the to partner with youth around food and food system from seed to table. farming. The youth we work with are usually In 2002, three founding partners— high school students from the Bay Area, Nancy Vail, Jered Lawson, and Karen Pacifi ca and Pescadero; however, we also Heisler—purchased a triangular 14-acre serve other groups from all over the globe. property on California’s San Mateo coast Our main focus is on providing the oppor- to establish Pie Ranch. The shape of the tunity for repeat visits rather than one- land, and their shared vision to create a time experiences on the farm. We believe model center of sustainable farming and that repeat visits build upon themselves; food system education, inspired the farm’s youth connect to the land, to the staff, and distinctly fi tting name. to each other. Trust and respect grow as Since 2005, Pie Ranch has operated as a youth experience the cycle of days, weeks, working farm, hosting youth from regional months, seasons, and years. high schools to participate in farm-based programs and activities. Pie Ranch also Farmer Apprenticeships works with educators and community Pie Ranch is a unique sustainable food system collaborators in diverse urban, suburban education and advocacy organization. We and rural settings to help students apply seek to inspire and create a new generation what they’ve learned at Pie Ranch in their of farmers, educators, entrepreneurs, and daily lives. In addition, Pie Ranch mentors advocates with the knowledge and the aspiring farmers as resident apprentices skills to work together to build a healthy, who spend a full year immersed in all sustainable, inclusive food system. Our aspects of farm operations and marketing. work is based on the assumption that a sustainable food system can only emerge What we do: when both rural and urban communities understand and are accountable to each GROW aspect of the system. Our sustainable farming practices empha- size soil fertility, biological diversity, Emerging Farmer Program — Apprenticeships growing for local markets, and creating a & Internships at Pie Ranch relationship-based food system. Delicious, Our Emerging Farmer Program includes fresh, seasonal, humane; We grow food to our year-long Apprenticeship Program & sustain ourselves, our community, and our Summer Internship Program environment. On our pie-slice shaped piece of land, New in 2012 : we grow pie ingredients including wheat HomeSlice: Mission High School Youth CSA for crusts, fruits for filling, raise chick- Pie Ranch’s HomeSlice internship is an ens for eggs, goats and cows for milk and employment program committed to youth butter, and vegetables for healthy meals. development and leadership, with the goal school seniors in starting a CSA at their will be the fi rst incarnation of HomeSlice We sell our crops at our farm stand, to to grow young farmers, food justice activists school with produce, grains, dry beans and and will run from March–June 2012. local restaurants and bakeries—including and educators. HomeSlice engages high eggs from Pie Ranch. This pilot program 3

* Ivinda ya Mbua - Farm Work Song 3:23 David Nzomo Work and Dance Songs FARM SONGS: LISTENING TO AGRICULTURE from Kenya * Farm Worker’s Song 2:42 Joe Glazer Jen Delos Reyes Welcome to America — Joe Glazer Sings TRACK LIST Songs of the American Immigrants * Infi nity Farm 2:47 Lightning Bolt Hypermagic Mountain * Agriculture 3:34 Ritchie Calder, Science in Our Lives * Milk Cow Blues 2:08 Roscoe Holcomb, An Untamed Sense of Control * My Little Seed 2:45 Ramblin’ Jack Elliott, Woody Guthrie’s Songs to Grow On * A men’s work group clears a new garden 8:45 Fifteen working men Bosavi: Rain- * On The Farm 4:01 Panda Bear, Panda Bear forest Music from Papua New Guinea * Rice Planting Song 1:32 Sia-weli, women * The Pasture 2:53 Lesley Frost Derry of a rice planting co-operative in Gborola Down Derry: A Narrative Reading by Music of the Kpelle of Liberia Lesley Frost of Poems by Robert Frost * Farm Dance 2:40 Piatnitsky Chorus and * Open Field 3:17 Taken By Trees Orchestra Russian, Folk Songs: Songs Open Field and Dances of Central Russia * Apple Picker’s Reel 2:32 Larry Hanks * * * Berkeley Farms: Oldtime and Country Style Music of Berkeley Jen Delos Reyes is an artist originally from * Daybreak at Calamity Farm 4:14 Gilbert Winnipeg, MB, Canada. Her research Girard and Len Spencer Phono-Cylinders, interests include the history of socially Vol. 1: Edited by and from the Collection engaged art, group work, band dynamics, of George A. Blacker folk music, and artists’ social roles. She has exhibited works across North America * The Seed 3:52 Nobody & Mystic Chords and Europe, and has contributed writing to Of Memory, Tree Colored See Mush various catalogues and institutional publi- * All the Baby Chickens in the Garden 2:52 cations. Jen is the founder and director of John Lomax, Jr. John A. Lomax, Jr. Sings Open Engagement, a conference on socially American Folksongs engaged art practice and herself speaks widely on Art and Social Practice at con- * Bush Clearing Song 3:03 Tokpa of Yanekwele, ferences and institutions around the world. workers of a bush clearing co-operative, * Squash Dance 1:30 n.a. Anthology of * Digging Potatoes 1:09 Ellie Mao Toward She is currently an Assistant Professor at drummers Music of the Kpelle of Liberia Central and South American Indian World Understanding with Song Portland State University where she co- Music * Billy’s Friendly Farm 4:04 Peyton * Dust Bowl 2:20 The Magnetic Fields directs the Art and Social Practice MFA. Hopkins, Let the Teachers Tell the Story * Penny’s Farm 1:49 Pete Seeger Darling The Charm of the Highway Strip The songs that appear on this compila- * Making The Nature Scene 3:01 Sonic Corey/Goofi ng-Off Suite * Ang Gatas At Ang Itlog (The Milk and tion were selected to refl ect a wide range of Youth, Screaming Fields Of Sonic Love * The Cow in Apple Time 0:52 Lesley The Eggs) 1:23 Luz Morales Folk Songs cultural approaches to farming and agricul- ture, with a strong emphasis on American * At the Farm: Goats and Sheep 4:14 Frost Derry Down Derry: A Narrative of the Philippines folk songs and work songs. These songs Nicholas E. Collias, Sounds of Animals Reading by Lesley Frost of Poems by * The Homestead on the Farm 2:21 Robert Frost refl ect a variety of perspectives on life on * Harvest Song 3:11 Frantz Casséus and Smokey Joe Miller and the Georgia Pals the land in many places around the globe. Lolita Cuevas, Haitian Folk Songs * Cattle Herding Song 2:33 n.a. African Old American Heart Throbs The content of these songs range from Music from the Film - The Naked Prey * Tee Roo, Farmer’s Curst Wife 2:21 John * County Farm Blues 2:12 Son House harvest, the care of animals, the celebra- Lomax, Jr. John A. Lomax, Jr. Sings * Burning Farm 4:34 Sonic Youth Lost Tracks: Classic Blues from Smithsonian tion of bounty, to drought, and economic American Folksongs Single B-Sides and Non-Album Tracks Folkways uncertainty.

SOIL KITCHEN Futurefarmers Amy Franceschini

Soil Kitchen was a temporary, windmill- powered architectural intervention and multi-use space where citizens enjoy free soup in exchange for soil samples from their neighborhood. Placed across the street from the Don Quixote monument at 2nd Street and Girard Avenue in North Philadelphia, Soil Kitchen inhabits an abandoned building and places a windmill atop to pay homage to the popular windmill scene in Cervantes’, Don Quixote. Rather than being “adversarial giants” as they were in the novel, the windmill at Soil Kitchen is a functioning symbol of self-reliance and literally breathing new life into a formerly abandoned building. The windmill also serves as a sculptural invitation to imagine a potential green energy future and to participate in the material exchange of soil for soup—literally taking matters into one’s and tools to inform and respond to possible Environmental Protection Agency’s learning; free workshops including wind own hands. This exchange provides an contaminants in the soil. National Brownfields Conference. Soil turbine construction, urban agriculture, entry point for further dialogue and action Soil Kitchen was commissioned by Kitchen offered free pH and heavy metal soil remediation, composting, lectures by available in the space through workshops, Philadelphia’s Offi ce of Arts, Culture and testing and produced a Philadelphia soil scientists and cooking lessons. events and informal exchange. Soil Kitchen the Creative Economy using a generous Brownfields Map and Soil Archive. In provides sustenance, re-established value of grant from the William Penn Foundation. addition to serving soup and testing soil, natural resources through a trade economy, Soil Kitchen coincided with the 2011 the building is a hub for exchange and 4 Only Birds Sing the Music of Heaven in this World LIFE IN THE MIDDLE OF CONCRETE Natasha Boas looks back at The Farm with PK Steffan

I lived briefl y at The Farm in the mid-eighties the space and community immediately. and we had animals running through our To this day, my wife still laughs about how studio while we worked. Located under the I approached the owner Marilyn Goode so freeway at the corner of Army Street (currently intensely saying “What do I need to do to Cesar Chavez) and Potrero Avenue in San move in here?” After having traveled for Francisco, The Farm was a remarkable rural years, going from grad school in Tucson to oasis and hands-on educational farm with Japan and then to San Francisco, I knew vegetable gardens, chickens, geese, rabbits, and I was home. goats and a pre-school as well as a library, a gallery space and rehearsal and performance NB: What do you mean here by “home”? space for theater and punk rock bands. Build- ings in the same complex housed Survival PKS: It felt like home because of the Research Laboratories, Subterranean Records, great community of artists living there, the and Cloudkick. Later in the eighties it would fact that there was a thriving community become exclusively an artist live/work space. garden in the midst of the city and because Artist PK Steffen taught digital arts at the Marilyn seemed like such an incredibly California College of the Arts from 1996– interesting, kind but very direct honest 2004 while living at The Farm. PK currently individual. It was like no other space in the lives in Tuscan, Arizona and is known for city. Typically there are good workspaces, quoting Baldessari: “Hopeless desire—to make or good neighbors, but the combination at words and images interchangable, yet it is The Farm was unique. It felt like a chal- the futility that engrosses me...” PK and I lenging but inviting environment—one reminisced recently about The Farm life. where an artist could be fully engaged in the community and in their work. —Natasha Boas, MOCFA curator

NB: Can you describe the community NB: PK, I hear that you lived at The Farm for me? and managed it for the founders Marilyn and Chris Goode. What years were you PKS: What an incredible and productive there and what brought you to The Farm? mix of talent. There were a number of performing artists such as Mark Pauline’s PK Steffan: We were there roughly from Survival Research Laboratories (SRL) and 1994 to 2001. I found out about the Farm Chip’s People Eater. They would do mini Original drawing of The Farm, 1974, by Bonnie Ora Sherk, Founding Director/President, 1974–80 Crossroads Community (The Farm). from the Arthouse hotline run by Cali- shows in the back including one incredible fornia Lawyers for the Arts. Back then it performance for a BBC documentary. The was just a phone hotline. I fell in love with window used to literally bow inwards and Freeway interchange above The Farm. 5

Seven Reasons, video installation, PK Steffen, 1996.

light up at night as they tested the jet one knew what I was talking about when I engine or the flamethrower. There were described a web page or how I made one. teachers such as our next door neighbor who taught at the bilingual school up the The Net became a central part of my street. There were artists using high tech process as an artist and my teaching at production for video and installation. California College of Arts and Crafts. There were dancers. There were designers. I taught many classes on net art, creating an There were crafts people. Everyone was artist portfolio and helped out other artists busy producing something. We used to like Harrell to gain a presence on the web. knock on each other’s doors to enlist sup- I used to hand out portfolios on floppy port or expertise in what we were making disks with a copy of Netscape 0.96 beta or invite a neighbor to collaborate in a piece because most people had no clue about for a show. modems. I included printed instructions on how to install the app and locate the home NB: It sounds like a real laboratory situ- page! We used to distribute Quicktime ation. What about the whole technology, videos, images and text based pieces via early Net and website activity at The Farm? online sites such as the Well and BMUG. These were the early days of Net art at PKS: Yeah, some of my early net-based art The Farm... developed there. That was the beginning of Two scenes from the BBC’s Survival Research Laboratories documentary Pandemonium, directed by Leslie the Net as we know it. We used to project NB: The music scene was really important Askao Gladsjo. Filmed in the yard of The Farm in 1995, it featured a large hydraulically actuated shaking and bowing cross covered in bibles that was burned with fl amethrowers. Photos by Diana Coopersmith. web pages up onto the walls of the spaces at the Farm in the seventies and eighties.

a stabbing at one of the last shows. Due to came to hang out. It became a bit of an police crackdowns and insurance reasons, issue at times because of things getting sto- the music came to an end. I believe at that len or new residents feeling uncomfortable point Marilyn purchased the space since when someone would climb the fence to there was not enough income to run the gain entry. space. I think the circus school may have been there for a while still but then they NB: Tell me about SRL and Mark Pauline— converted the whole thing into live/work the myth of Mark is huge around The in the late eighties. Farm and beyond.

NB: After speaking with one of the original PKS: All those machines that were used founders, Bonnie Ora Sherk, I learned that in impromptu shows, tests and rehearsals The Farm was originally called Crossroads and the BBC Documentary—those were Community: The Farm because it was at done in the yard of The Farm. I have some the crossroads of four neighborhoods. How really good Mark Pauline stories but it used did the shift from community center to live- to piss him off if I shared them with any- work space change the scene at The Farm? one. I saw fi rsthand how they tested stuff and risked life and limb. They are fearless. PKS: It switched modes when it became Mark always took that to mean I was say- a live/work space. It was no longer the ing he was reckless. open community space it had been in the past. People who lived there before such NB: Fearless might be an understatement. Boys Mowing Lawn At The Farm, 1976, photo by Bonnie Ora Sherk, Founding Director/President, 1974–80 as the founders lamented the change. It Did the farm school still function there? Crossroads Community (The Farm). became a community for the residents and their friends and collaborators. This was a PKS: Yes, it was still going while we were and share other artists’ work from China The Farm as a punk rock showcase by totally different model and much smaller there. The kids who visited from city or Russia. Seems crazy now that I can night was infamous for staging seminal core group than the founders had envi- schools on fi eld trips contributed greatly access everything from my phone. Funny, eighties punk rock bands such as sioned. It wasn’t a collaborative work funded to the sense of a vibrant artistic community. I designed Harrell Fletcher’s fi rst website Frightwig, Discharge, The Descendents, by what the group produced. We paid rent The kids’ art projects hung on the walls at The Farm actually. The Mentors, 7 Seconds, MDC (Millions (covered by rent control yes so below market) of the building and some of the residents of Dead Cops), RKL (Rich Kids on LSD), and there was no communal indoor space taught there and contributed to lessons at NB: Can you describe the “early Net days” DRI (Dirty Rotten Imbeciles), Raw Power, except for the laundry room, hallways, front the school. The school was still there, the in SF a bit more? The Accused, Redd Kross, Soundgarden, garden and community garden. garden continued —part of which became The Gits, the Lookouts (Early band of the public De La Raza Park. There were PKS: The video projection parties were Green Day drummer), Bad Brains, and Even so, it still felt like a communal space no animals, but the artistic residency done at a video collective that was based in many more. It was a way for The Farm to to us. We were constantly surrounded by continued albeit in a different form. We a warehouse somewhere near Brannan and raise money along with DIY events—What visitors. There was a constant stream of still considered it to be “The Farm” but to Third Streets. They had all the equipment was going on music wise when you were people coming to help out at SRL or Chip’s the founders, I’m sure it wasn’t anything that they also used in raves. I don’t remember there? group for example or Sergio Becerill’s print like it had been. the address anymore and their name shop clients and skateboard fi lming crew. changed every week according to the PKS: No, the music shows were over by During the day the yard was full of kids theme. The shows they did inspired me to the time we moved there. From what I was from the Buena Vista school across the share the web with every artist I knew. No told (not sure how reliable it is), there was street or people who didn’t live there but 6 Only Birds Sing the Music of Heaven in this World

PROJECT GROW Natasha Wheat

Project Grow is an art studio and urban farm in Portland, Oregon. In November of 2008, artist Natasha Wheat proposed Project Grow to the Port City Developmental Center, a sheltered work-shop in Portland, Oregon. It was initially an intervention in creating a new culture, economy, and labor option to what was exclusively factory-labor offered there at the time. Sheltered workshops are places of employment that often use a “piece rate” of a penny per piece to compensate their developmentally disabled employees. They exist across the United States, as well as internationally. Customers of these factories are often military, commercial, mass transit and medical contractors such as Aramark, Haliburton and the Federal Reserve Bank. Within nine months of its beginnings, Project Grow saw the launch of a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) from its thriving farm, and had several exhibitions of work from its artists. The artists and farmers of the program continue to earn paychecks from art sold, lessons taught, lectures given, commissioned projects, and as recognition of their efforts and contribution to the farm. Project Grow now occupies two acres of land, on four lots within the inner city of Portland. It is home to four goats, thirty chickens, and is an ongoing collaboration between fi fty artists and farmers. There is now an extensive fi ber arts and woodworking program at the site of The Port City Development Center, in addition to a gallery, art studio and The North Portland Farm. Natasha Wheat is an artist who is interested in sameness, institutional life, power structures, utopian attempts, and temporary emancipation. Her work often takes the form of situation constructions, making temporary spaces and objects that amplify or intervene in a these dynamics. Wheat has exhibited at Roberts & Tilton, Los Angeles; Berkeley Art Museum, Berkeley, and numerous exhibitions at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago. 7

SALINAS FARM WORKER PORTRAIT John Cerney and Eliza Gregory

Artist John Cerney grew up in Salinas, California and displays his work to the public alongside the highways of California and the Midwest. His giant plywood cut- outs tell a story, either honoring a FARM STORE @ MOCFA fi eld laborer or amusing the pass- ing motorists with fl ights of fancy. Sadie Harmon For this exhibition, the Museum of Craft and Folk Art teamed up Farm Store @ MOCFA is an installation @ MOCFA is to be a central resource with Chris Bunn, a Salinas farmer located within the museum shop. As a part for visitors who are interested in getting who had worked with John Cerney of the show Only Birds Sing the Music involved in agriculture and food activism at to create a series of giant field of Heaven in This World, Farm Store @ any level. Visitors will be able to purchase workers back in the 1990s, to MOCFA presents objects and books that products and books and bring home free commission another mural-sized represent artists, farmers, makers, chefs, resources that relate to a full spectrum of portrait to be installed in Yerba growers, gardeners, and activists as they thinking about art and agriculture. Buena Lane. John Cerney was navigate agricultural production and use. Sadie Harmon is an Oakland-based asked to create a cut-out of a single The products and resources at Farm Store interdisciplinary artist and educator. Her field worker, in a typical pose. @ MOCFA are separated into several work looks at the interactions between Chris Bunn invited fi eld irrigator categories that each address a different education, community, craft, and the Jose Lepe Lepe, who has worked aspect of agricultural production and use: ineffable. Currently, she is pursuing an with him in Salinas for over 30 farming and gardening, cooking and baking, MFA in textiles and sculpture at California years, to be the subject of the preservation, and textiles. Farm Store @ College of the Arts. She has done projects painting. In the portrait, Jose over- MOCFA features books and other products at the Museum of Contemporary Art sees the irrigation of a just-planted produced by other participants in the show Chicago, Esperanza Community Services fi eld of lettuce. as well as products from local, regional, and the National Institute of Art and Eliza Gregory is an artist based in San process of this painting being made. Her and national artists, writers, and makers. Disabilities in Richmond. In Spring of Francisco. Her work focuses on cultural interviews with the three men and her A bibliography for Farm Store @ MOCFA 2012 she will be artist in residence at anthropology, cultural identity, and images from Salinas are available to see has been assembled with the help of Mercy Retirement and Care Center. community development. in Only Birds Sing the Music of Heaven in participants in the show and will be avail- Eliza went to Salinas to meet Chris Bunn, This World. able to the public. The goal of Farm Store Jose Lepe Lepe and John Cerney and see the 8 Only Birds Sing the Music of Heaven in this World from page 1 updates on the farm and suggest recipes involving objects, events, publications, comment on it (along with millions of and other ideas. The shareholders are gen- etc… It might not take place in a gallery passersby). One project has lead to another content or context. If artists think about erally invited to the farm for tours and or art context at all. (from word of mouth and public visibility) their audience at all, they think of it in workdays so that they can have even more Systems create feedback loops, commercial and John has created a substantial career general terms, not as local and unique to direct relationships with the place where art and industrial agriculture create certain that is artistically, fi nancially, and socially context, much less as actual people that their food is grown and the people who relationships and products, localized agri- fulfi lling. In the case of a status quo painter they could meet and be infl uenced by. grow it. Community gardens and farms are culture and art projects develop different they also produce work in a studio that is In the case of localized forms of agri- located in urban and suburban areas and ones. I think there is room in the world for located somewhere—NYC, or Oakland, or culture there are a few models that have allow local people to tend their own garden all of these systems to exist, but the problem, Portland or anywhere else—but the work been utilized by many different farms all plots or work with others to grow produce as I see it, is that right now the two they make is generally not intended for over the world. In the case of farmers mar- that is shared by the group. approaches are way out of balance, and local consumption. Instead they are making because of that, the localized versions need work for the international art market more support so that they can develop further. (this is the case even with the NYC artist Obviously, not all localized art projects who might be showing their work in need to be farm related, but since that is NYC but they are generally making it for the focus of the exhibition I have organized a generalized art world rather than their let me describe the way I see one of the own neighborhood or community. If the projects in Only Birds Sing the Music of work is sold it will be sold to any collector Heaven in this World as an example. John anywhere in the world as opposed to a Cerney makes large-scale paintings of localized one. Another point of difference farmers and farm workers and installs them is that John represents himself, whereas in the farm fi elds where those people work. in the conventional art world artists are John does a lot of other kinds of public represented by galleries and a gallery system paintings as well, but I’m focusing on the that includes publications, art fairs, farm ones for the show and this text. I’ve museums, etc. Other localized projects take driven past John’s paintings along Hwy 101 less traditional forms, but I think John’s kets, local farmers come to a central place What would art related projects be like in the Salinas area for years, and was always career, as an unorthodox painter is inter- on a regular basis to sell their produce to if they functioned more like localized agri- intrigued about who had made them and why. esting to compare to the ways that painters local people. The farmers or their direct culture instead of commercial art world art? It turns out that John gets commissioned typically attempt to work in the art world. representatives can communicate with I don’t think there is a hard and fast set of by local farmers to make and install his This exhibition includes a variety of their consumers. Questions about farm rules, but the general idea from my point of paintings at various local farms. In some different projects and practitioners who conditions can be answered, suggestions view is that there would be a relationship cases they function partly as advertising for have all found ways to work in signifi cant, can be made, the produce can be freshly between the artists and the audience, which the farm, in other cases they are more like localized ways. Rather than go into detail harvested and ripe, the transportation could either turn into collaborations, or at monuments. about all of them, I have invited each can be very limited. CSAs or community least involve audience participation. Creating I find John’s work really striking and participant to represent their ideas through supported agriculture projects work by projects that are specifi c to the place where effective. It is interesting to compare his texts they have written, documentation having a group of consumers paying a they are made and shown would be a greater practice to a more status quo painter. Both and artworks of various kinds, as well as farm upfront at the start of a season for priority than making work that is general of them make their work in a studio context, a series of public events that have been a box of produce each week over several and could be exhibited anywhere and but John’s work is based on local people created as part of Only Birds Sing the months. By paying at the start of a season generically. The work might not take the who he has actually interacted with—talked Music of Heaven in this World. the consumer invests in the farm and then form of an object that is easily transport- to, eaten meals with, taken photos of, met receives whatever is grown and harvested able and saleable. Instead the work could families of etc… When the work is fi nished, —Harrell Fletcher by the farm. CSAs tend to send out news- be ephemeral, or very long term, it could he installs it in a location where the subjects Portland, Oregon letters with the shares of produce that give change over time, it might be multifaceted as well as other local people can see and March 1st, 2012 FARM SCHOOL Nolan Calisch and Molly Sherman

Founded in 2011 by artists Nolan Calisch worked as a designer at Project Projects and Molly Sherman, Portland-based Farm in New York, with clients that include the School is an organization that brings Museum of Modern Art and Art in General, together the practices of farming, interdis- and as an educator in public schools and ciplinary art, and site-specifi c education. non-profi t organizations such as the Center With a pedagogy focused on participation for Urban Pedagogy. Molly received her and applied learning, Farm School expands BFA from the Minneapolis College of Art the possibilities of what a classroom can be. and Design and will soon hold an MFA Farm School has worked in grocery stores, from Portland State University’s Art and schools, galleries, museums, and on farms Social Practice program. She is continually celebrating the connection between people energized by teaching and working collab- and their places. oratively. Molly Sherman is an artist, designer, and Nolan Calisch is a farmer, photogra- educator. She is the co-founder of Farm pher, and artist. He is co-founder of Farm his organic farm in Portland Oregon where Production from Denison University and School, an organization that brings together School, an organization that brings together he grows food for thirty families through will soon hold his MFA in Art and Social the practices of farming, interdisciplinary the practices of farming, interdisciplinary a community supported agriculture pro- Practice from Portland State University. art, and site-specific education. She has art, and site-specifi c education. He lives on gram (CSA). Nolan earned his BA in Film

ONLY BIRDS SING These allegiances share a kinship with activist art, social MOCFA is generously supported by Grants for the Arts/ work, community art and relational aesthetics and signal San Francisco Hotel Tax Fund, Gertrud and Harold Parker, THE MUSIC OF HEAVEN a socially engaged return to art practice with a strong The Sato Foundation, The Andy Warhol Foundation for IN THIS WORLD representational dimension. The exhibition not only the Visual Arts, Museum members, and friends. presents an interesting and topical set of works, but Special thanks to Cecilia Aldwell, John Borruso, Chris March 23–July 7, 2012 attempts to expand the idea of what can be considered Bunn, The Farm Salinas, Beatrice Red Star Fletcher, MOCFA 51 Yerba Buena Lane “craft and folk art” by presenting work that in many cases Amanda Hughen, Mark Pauline, San Francisco Arts San Francisco, California 94103 functions outside of the art world, while at the same time Commission Gallery, Bonnie Ora Sherk, and PK Steffen. www.mocfa.org is not typical of received historical ideas of “outsider art.” Participating artists and organizations include John Cerney, Farm School, Amy Franceschini with Futurefarmers, Curated by artist Harrell Fletcher, this exhibition explores Eliza Gregory, Sadie Harmon, Joyce Grimm with Pie the relationship between art and agriculture from a variety Ranch, The Farm, Natasha Wheat with Project Grow, of perspectives including historical and current day agri- as well as a selection of California agricultural paintings and cultural imagery, alternative farming projects, and the prints from the Nelson Gallery and the Oakland Museum representation of farm labor. of California and photographic documentation from the The exhibition is conceived with allegiances to folk art, National Chavez Center. Designed by John Borruso. Printed by Howard Quinn Company outsider art, craft, experimental art and social practice. —Natasha Boas and Jennifer McCabe in San Francisco. © MOCFA 2012