“Once and Future” 2021 -2023 is a large-scale public artwork that contemplates the realities of an ongoing mass extinction and climate change while holding on to the possibility of growth and rebirth. Caribou once lived in the Lake Superior Basin but disappeared after human activity made their habitat inhospitable. “Once and Future” is a series of three Caribou made from rebar, burlap, dirt, seeds, and thread. The rebar makes a basic skeleton frame, and layers of burlap quilted around dirt and seeds make the skin. The process for this work has been to quilt dirt between layers of burlap until it feels like a cut of meat and then stitch the ‘meat’ back onto the skeleton like butchering an animal in reverse.
The three Caribou were placed in three locations throughout Grand Marais, MN. As rain, sunshine, wind, and weather entered the project, the dormant seeds in the Caribou began to grow, dramatically bursting through the burlap. The nature of “Once and Future” is temporal; as the weather continued to interact with the sculptures, the burlap began to fall apart, and the plants living under the skin continued to thrive and take over. The three Caribou were dying simultaneously, holding the reality of destruction and the possibility of growth and rebirth.