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Field Marks (Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest)

Part of The Museum of the White Mountains’ exhibition:

Extending Ecology: Meaning Making with the White Mountains

[map of Field Marks]

THE WATERFALL

A place of play, curiosity, and naps. Here, the brook takes quirky bumps, turns, and slides; rocks have circular pockets and smooth, angled surfaces. It was here that Rich made his inspired speech about how, over millions of years, the rocks shape the water and the water shapes the rocks. The two participate in a durational dance of reflexivity, teaching us how to be in relationship by showing us how they respectfully, patiently, and playfully engage with each other. Rich and I have consistently revisited The Waterfall ever since. I can only hope I am somehow reciprocating back out into the world what The Waterfall gifts me: The rock shapes the water and the water shapes the rock.

BROOK PARTY

What is the experiential difference between a competition and a celebration? At the furthest downstream point before Hubbard Brook exits the boundaries of the forest, the feeling is distinctly one of a shared, conjoined purpose. As the brook rushes down, prepping for its merge into the Pemigewasset, it is fully equipped with all forms of data – scientific and otherwise – from each of the forest’s watersheds. Rather than establishing independence, the streams have united, each contributing what they’ve collected along their individual paths in the service of the momentum of the whole. THIS is the experience of celebration.

THE MOSSY CATWALK

Situated just beneath my Mossy Office, the catwalk is a particularly well-delineated part of the path that is flanked by the softest, most seductive, brilliantly green moss. Although each of the numerous varieties speak their own textural tongue, their messages all translate to the same invitation: Engage. Supportive and vivacious, this pathway has become a space of liberation and ideation. Even in the winter, frozen and covered in snow, the warmth of this creative vitality is palpable. The Mossy Catwalk has taught me that, through trust and mutual memories, a sacred pact remains intact.

THE GIGGLE

Watershed 9 has character all the way up. Majestic moments in the bog, damp, coniferous spaces of self-reflection, tannin-filled water that made me and my yellow ochre t-shirt feel at home. But where Watershed 9 meets the brook, it giggles, hop-skip-jumping into the brook with glee. From holy bog to emo woodland to…fountain of youth? Right next to The Giggle, in the larger Hubbard Brook, rocks disturb and delay the water. But shift scales back to The Giggle and such obstacles become games. Maybe this youthful spirit is actually age-old wisdom traveling down from Watershed 9: shift your scale, keep it in perspective, embrace complexity, enjoy the ride.

For a map of all four Field Mark locations, click here.

FIELD MARKS: OVERVIEW

In January 2022, standing at The Mossy (then snowy) Catwalk, Rich posed the question: What makes a site sacred? We talked about it at length. Is it a decision? A decision based on what, and whose decision is it to make?

Field Marks (Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest) represent just four of the ever-increasing number of sites within the forest for which Rich and I have developed a deep reverence.

The process of acquaintance began in 2021 when ecologist Rich Blundell and I kicked off Ecology Extended, our Oika collaboration with Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest. Through rigorous, firsthand participation, our triangulated relationship grew. Over time, our sense of connection increased in potency throughout the “external” ecosystem as well as “within” us.

Now, as we continue this ongoing collaboration, visits to the forest include “baseline checks” to several of the sites that hold particular resonance with us. These checks involve noting changes in the ecosystem: water levels, seasonal shifts, various disturbances, new growth. But they are also temperature checks, not just of the forest but with the forest: how our convergence of presences fit together today, right now, as compared to the last visit. Together we sense, track, and communicate relational consistencies and shifts. These offer as much of a snapshot of forest health as they do a snapshot of our own wellbeing.

Every time we engage in a baseline check at one of these sites, the sacred space works on us. Inevitably, a drive toward intimacy pulls us in: the site gets subdivided into more, smaller-but-equally-sacred spaces. Simultaneous to this, the boundaries of the spaces expand further and further outward: the threshold that was once delineated by this mossy log has now shifted to the angled, mushroom-infested tree that cues my proximity to the imminent mossy log. Eventually, inevitably - obviously - the sacred sites link up to form one continuous mass of reverence. It’s a familiar, knowing embrace.

FIELD MARKS: PROCESS + INVITATION

In my visual practice, I am interested in transitions in all dimensions: zooming in, interrogating constructed boundaries until they break character and dissolve. In doing so, I, too, become porous: dexterous and continuous. Thus, these Field Marks are as much evidence of my own boundary interrogation as they are invitations for yours.

The Field Marks are collages made from pieces of “visual data” I collected on-site at eighteen different locations in Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest as part of the ongoing, collaborative Oika project, Ecology Extended (you can learn more about my process here). In this way, they are direct manifestations of my relationship with my two collaborators, the forest and ecologist Rich Blundell. Unique to other, more abstract collages I have made through this project, however, the Field Marks directly reference four of my most revered locations in the forest: Downstream Celebration, The Mossy Catwalk, The Giggle, and The Waterfall. Sandwiched between transparent acrylic, the four Field Marks are installed at physical, outdoor locations both in Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest and - as another way to encourage perforation of boundaries - the campus of Plymouth State. There, they invite viewers into their own relationship with the artwork, the surrounding environment, and a shared moment in time.

A full exhibition of the collaboration is currently on view at the Museum of the White Mountains. Click here for information about visiting Extending Ecology: Meaning Making with the White Mountains. For event information, click here.