The land, the earth and sky. Spending my younger years on a farm growing wheat and hay, and raising cattle in a pasture with a lazy creek running through the middle, it seemed like there was nothing more healthy and comfortable than the smell of wheat, cattle, grassland, and a meandering creek. So it was more than a touch of “home” to see the wheatfield growing this summer in Bozeman on the Tinworks Art plot tucked in between North Ida Street and the old Misco Grain Elevator, now an art gallery, on Bozeman’s Northside. 

This wheatfield – which is actually an art installation by Agnes Denes – is the vanguard of Tinworks Art’s 2024 exhibition The Lay of the Land, in which six renowned artists create art installations that reflect upon the land of the American West, connecting their insights to the larger community of those interested in better understanding this land. Agnes Denes’ work is entitled The Seed is in the Ground, and indeed it is – and is now – even as you read this article, ready to be harvested.

In addition to Agnes Denes, participants include James Castle, who documented his family’s early 20th Century farm buildings with elegantly simple drawings using his fireplace soot-based ink on the back of everyday shipping cartons and cereal boxes; Lucy Raven’s installation examines the forces of pressure, industry, and earth transformations that mark the Southwest and Mountain West landscapes of America; Robbie Wing uses discarded railroad ties to capture the distant sounds of trains across the distant prairies, and, through his camera, Stephen Shore reveals subtleties in the liminal spaces where the natural world meets the impact of human presence in the American West.

Now in its sixth year, Tinworks Art connects artists and community through art experiences in non-traditional spaces. Designed to welcome everyone, Tinworks is an idea as well as a place, a site where contemporary art connects with the American West by weaving together its complex landscape, stories, experiences, and cultures. With a different theme each year, Tinworks aims to provide a gathering space for people from all communities to interact with the theme. In particular, Tinworks invites specific individuals and organizations to provide special events that explore Tinworks Art’s theme with their own work.

Viewing these unique art installations makes us realize what we are asking of this land, what we as humans are putting the land through, as we strain to produce more food, take in more outdoor recreation, extract more minerals, and still preserve some semblance of nature in all its glory.

To explore these issues, as well as to feed our souls, Montana InSite Theatre (MIST) brings six performances of Stories Under the Land as part of Tinworks Art’s exhibit on September 21st and 22nd.

“Stories Under the Land” is inspired by the ancient Greek myth of Demeter (the goddess of the harvest) and her daughter Persephone, who was abducted by Hades and fated to dwell half the year on earth and the other half in the underworld, thus explaining nature’s seasons of winter and summer. These timeless tales engage with the earth’s cycles of fertility, seasonal shifts, and what it means to expect the land to produce sustenance for us all.

This performance begins in the Tinworks Art courtyard and in the vicinity of Agnes Denes’ Wheatfield installation, where actors will turn from statues into poets who bring to life stories from around the globe, sharing poetry and tales from different cultures that tell of the seasons and the earth’s remarkable ability to feed us. The audience then moves inside the warehouse to Chris Fraser’s Asterisms installation, where MIST performers will present an adaptation of this ancient Greek myth of Persephone and Demeter, using this ancient story to show the dangers to which modern humans have exposed our land.

MIST’s artistic director, Gretchen Minton says of this Demeter / Persephone-based play, “Retelling ancient myths always brings surprises and revelations. We see in this story a conflict between mother and daughter, violence done to women and the land, and witness the urgent call to work together as a shifting climate changes everything we thought we knew about food production.”

Stories Under the Land opens on September 21st and closes on September 22nd. MIST will present three shows each day, at 3:00, 4:00, and 5:00 pm. Each performance is about 85 minutes long. This is a ticketed event, with all tickets being purchased through Tinworks Art, or via a link on MIST’s website: www.montanainsitetheatre.org.

Tinworks Art is open and free to everyone Thursdays through Sundays, 10 am to 6 pm, until October 19, to view the installations and participate in public happenings held in the community room, including drop-in art classes, workshops, wheat harvest activities, a poetry slam, storytelling, and more.