This June, Tinworks Art will open its 2024 season, “The Lay of the Land,” featuring a major new ecological artwork by Agnes Denes and work by five artists inspired by the land of the American West: James Castle, Layli Long Soldier, Lucy Raven, Stephen Shore and Robbie Wing. Tinworks will also host artist-in-residence Wills Brewer, continuing the non-profit art organization’s mission to support the creation of new work on site, offering artists the opportunity to expand their practice in experimental ways. The exhibits will open Saturday, June 15th and will be on view into October.
“Being new to Bozeman and the Mountain West, I developed my inaugural season at Tinworks while discovering the communities, cultures and landscape of the region,” explains director Jenny Moore. “Learning about this land historically and geologically was the inspiration to bring together artists whose work is connected to the region and who contend with the land of the west in revelatory ways.”
With an intergenerational mix of established and emerging artists, iconic work and newly commissioned installations, ‘The Lay of the Land’ explores how land in the west is represented. The artworks included connect to land and place through their physical materiality – wheat, sediment, soot, clay, the sound of passing trains – and subject matter – the natural or industrial forces that have shaped the land of the west and depictions of western places shaped by memory or technology.
Agnes Denes’ new ecological work is entitled Wheatfield – An Inspiration. The seed is in the ground, serves as the touchstone of the season’s program. By repurposing the fallow land of Tinwork’s field with a stand of wheat that will grow through the summer and be harvested and processed into flour in the fall, Denes recenters a presence iconic to Montana, one that has shaped the land, the economy, the culture, and the future of the region. Expanding upon her iconic public artwork, Wheatfield – A Confrontation from 1982, Denes’ new Wheatfield – An Inspiration situates the substantial land at Tinworks’ site as a dynamic place to engage issues of current land use and value, encouraging community connections through an invitation by the artist for anyone inspired to plant wheat in fallow land in solidarity with her Wheatfield at Tinworks.
‘The Lay of the Land’ opens June 15th with a special celebration from 6–9pm. The evening will feature live music by Dave Hollier of King Ropes and food for purchase from Taco Montes. Entry is free to all. More information on Denes and other featured artists can be found at www.tinworksart.org. •
