The Carnegie Center for Art and History, New Albany, Indiana
How and why do we hold on to certain customs? Why do the foods we grow and eat change over time? How is it that a highly nutritious food that was commercially cultivated for over 200 years can suddenly lose its place in our lives? What roles do industry and regulation play in what can and can’t be grown? An amazing food, the currant berry, has been absent from our diets for nearly 100 years. Why?
Currant Exchange evolved as an inquiry into agricultural sustainability, bringing art and agriculture together to build community and create dialogue about how we grow our food, care for our bodies and the land, and become responsible stewards for future generations.
In Currant Exchange, viewers were invited to bring an object they feel represents sustainable agriculture or food and write a brief description of it. In exchange they took one of the 24 engraved terra cotta pots. At the end of the exhibition the participants returned to plant a currant plant in their pot and to retrieve the item they left in the Exchange.
Terra cotta pots etched with currant leaf, cedar, steel, castors
96" x 72" x 15"
2015