WELL, that’s exactly what we’ve spent the last month or so thinking, talking, and debating about. We’ve launched work on HOW TO BUILD A FOREST, our project which is equal parts sculpture and performance, with our collaborator visual artist Shawn Hall (meet her by going to her website HERE). The three of us have just finished a month spent traveling to old-growth and second-growth forests and other natural systems (like oceans, pitcher plant bogs, rivers, and gulf-coast communities), spending time in those places with the people who know them best.
In British Columbia, Katie’s friend John Mason (who spent his life working in forests in logging camps) was an absolutely amazing guide and host; in Mississippi, Shawn steered us towards expert friends like Tate Thriffiley , a forest ranger in De Soto National Forest who got us intimate with the Long Leaf Pine eco-system and introduced us to some beautiful carnivorous plants, and in Louisiana we spent time with Elizabeth Shannon, who shared dinner with us in her New Orleans studio populated with stuffed alligators; Lisa connected us with Monique Pilie, her cousin who started a nonprofit that is replanting all the trees lost in New Orleans due to Hurricane Katrina; and Nick Slie of Mondo Bizarro brought us to his fishing camp on Lake Veret where he took us into a cypress swamp– a first for Katie.
Throughout it all, we were working and talking under the shadow of the Oil Spill in the gulf, which is, as you might imagine, working its way into the ecosystem of our piece. How do you build a forest? The question is a big one. Stay tuned as we search for the answer through our research and the performance itself, set to premiere at The Kitchen, NYC next June. More updates on this project on our FOREST page on this site– check it out!