The Farm
"In a tribal view of the world, where on place has been inhabited for generations, the landscape becomes enlivened by a sense of group and family history. ... a traditional storyteller fixes listeners in an unchanging landscape combined of myth and reality. People and place are inseparable." (Erdrich, 44)
Our understanding of a place is made up of memories and stories that relay them. This farm in Southern Indiana belongs to my father and his 4 brothers and 2 sisters, inheriting it when their parents passed away. Though its purpose has changed, not providing their main sustenance, it has continued an important other type of existence as a meeting place. It redefines the concept of the family farm, in that, while they all are retired, they commune here, to eat, work, and most importantly, recall their lives and shared history(s).
The film is composed of interviews with my father's siblings at different locations on the farm, at the dinner table, porch, and through the fields and valleys. The interviews are about the history of the place, but also subsisting on the farm in regard to their class, social order, religion, and the hardships they faced throughout the years (no indoor plumbing, hard labor, etc).
In Re-discovering Indiana I tried to imagine the intersection of commercial culture with a regional farming heritage, in this work I am asking my relatives to depict the way things were, especially in contrast to the experiences of those who grow up now. Like past projects, I want to create an atmosphere of dialogue where understanding evolves through interactions with people outside of the realm of the art market, creating enriching experiences for everyone involved, including the audience/participants and artist/participant.
- Erdrich, Louise. "A Writer's Sense of Place." A Place of Sense: Essays in Search of the Midwest. Ed. Michael Martone. University of Iowa Press, Iowa City. 1988.
