Farmlab Public SalonFour Works on the Culture of Extraction:Newton & Helen Mayer HarrisonFriday, January 30, 2009 @ Noon

A vision for the Green Heart of Holland, Installation at Gouda

About the Salon
Considering the contemporary condition that they describe as the Culture of Extraction, the Harrisons present four of their projects: the Serpentine Lattice, the Endangered Meadows of Europe, Green Heart of Holland, and Greenhouse Britain.

About the Salon Participants
Among the leading pioneers of the eco-art movement, the collaborative team of Newton and Helen Mayer Harrison have worked for almost forty years with biologists, ecologists and urban planners to initiate collaborative dialogues to uncover ideas and solutions which support biodiversity and community development.

The Harrison's concept of art embraces a breathtaking range of disciplines. They are historians, diplomats, ecologists, investigators, emissaries and art activists. Their work involves proposing solutions and involves not only public discussion, but extensive mapping and documentation of these proposals in an art context.

Past projects have focused on watershed restoration, urban renewal, agriculture and forestry issues among others. The Harrisons visionary projects have often led to changes in governmental policy and have expanded dialogue around previously unexplored issues leading to practical implementations throughout the United States and Europe.

"Our work begins when we perceive an anomaly in the environment that is the result of opposing beliefs or contradictory metaphors. Moments when reality no longer appears seamless and the cost of belief has become outrageous offer the opportunity to create new spaces - first in the mind and thereafter in everyday life."

Further information about the Harrisons: http://www.theharrisonstudio.net