““Land is not a mat to be rolled up and taken away” (on view through May 21, 2023) is an ongoing project, which began as an exhibition and residency at the Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts in Omaha, Nebraska. This iteration adds new work derived from a residency on Prince Edward Island (PEI), Canada, in the Atlantic Ocean’s Gulf of St. Lawrence. The title, with its poetic evocation of the fundamental absurdity of land ownership, is nonetheless ironic. I am writing this in a part of Nova Scotia where the farms that surround me grow grass. Each spring, verdant green fields are rolled up and taken away to become lawns in housing developments. It’s absurd, yet somehow normal. Sylvie Fortin, the curator of “Land is not a mat to be rolled up and taken away,” writes that the project challenges us “to critically reassess our shared history and to imagine our fate with care.” Ibghy and Lemmens prompt us to do just that by highlighting, through sculptures and videos, the absurd but normal ways in which our culture interacts with the land and its other inhabitants.”
by Ray Cronin.
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