Grass \'gras\ video provides a deeper understanding of this sculpture's historical, ecological and cultural themes, grazing freely from the studio to suburban landscape. The construction and motivation behind the project is revealed, from cutting recycled tin cans in the studio, to the two day marathon where 32,400 blades of metal grass were inserted into the base.
Video by Will Zavala, Morsel Pictures.
To support this installation purchase the video CD (8:40 min) $15.95 includes shipping or watch online.
ARTIST STATEMENT
Grass raises many points. Blades of grass cut from post consumer tin containers reflect our consumer society where we think that we can buy everything including happiness and a green lawn.
Cut from post consumer, recycled tin cans each blade of grass is a printed with images and advertising. Ironically, Rance Crain, the editor-in-chief of Advertising Age, is quoted in Buy-ology, Truth and Lies About Why WE Buy that "Advertisers will not be satisfied until they put their mark on every blade of grass."
Grass lawns luxuriate in conspicuous consumption as if to say, "I own this space but I don't need to use it." "Keep off the grass". However, perfect grass is sustained only by spending time and money at an even greater cost to our environment. Grass\ ’gras\ series was from my observation and recognition in 1997 that grass lawns were not sustainable in most of the U.S. especially in the west. It only took 16+ years and a drought for people to see this.
“There are an estimated 40 million to 50 million acres of lawn in the continental United States — that’s nearly as much as all of the country’s national parks combined. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, maintaining those lawns consumes nearly 3 trillion gallons of water a year, as well as 59 million pounds of pesticides, which can seep into our land and waterways.”
“Transportation Department data shows that in 2020, Americans used roughly 3 billion gallons of gasoline to run lawn and garden equipment. That’s the equivalent of nearly 6 million passenger cars running for a year.”
“Replacing grass with plants is among the most important ways to keep a yard eco-friendly.“
Outside of the sculptural presence and artistic impact, this sculpture carries a very serious environmental message. We put tons of fertilizers, pesticides, herbicides on our lawns which are toxic poisons to the environment. Young children playing on the lawns have the greatest exposure and at the same time are the most vulnerable to the chemical exposure. The chemicals applied to lawns to keep them green are then washed into our ground water and surface water, often with our drinking water. In the United States, the lawn, or “turf grass,” is the single largest irrigated crop, three times larger than corn. (50)
“Lawns are basically biodiversity wastelands,” said Collin O’Mara, president and chief executive of the National Wildlife Foundation. “We typically put a lot of chemicals on them, kill everything that isn’t Bermuda grass or Kentucky bluegrass, which contaminates the soil and leads to it running off into our waterways." ***
Add the pollution involved in lawn mowers and you have a huge environmental impact.
Recent issues in the news "touch on divisive issues like homeowner rights, property values, sustainability, food integrity and the aesthetics of the traditional American lawn."* The city of "Los Angeles is trying a new strategy to cope with potential water shortages" by "re-landscaping people's lawns, at a cost to the city of about $500 each, with no charge to the homeowner."**
Freakonomics recently covered the environmental impact of lawns in dollars and cents with the audio: "How Stupid Is Our Obsession With Lawns?"
*The Battlefront in the Front Yard, The New York Times. Steven Kurutz, December 19, 2012.
** Losing the Lawn - With City's Help: Los Angeles Offers to Dig Up Grass and Install 'Rain Garden' in Push to Save Water, The Wall Street Journal, Hannah Karp, December 3, 2012.
***Governments could take decades to save species. Here’s what you can do now.
grass \gras'\sculpture series:
grass\gras' (This installation is 9' x 9' feet. It ships easily in 18 boxes and installs in about two hours.)
This series of grass \gras'\ sculptures highlight the grass lawn as an ultimate consumer icon of American culture. Each blade of grass is cut from post consumer recycled tin cans. Only a society as rich as we are thinks we can buy happiness with a great lawn and an even greater cost to our environment.
As the west suffers with an historic drought, the impact of using our drinking water to water lawns and the urban landscape has come under further scrutiny.
The lawn was originally introduced by Thomas Jefferson but has become an standard of the domestic landscape all over North America. This is an unrealistic standard incompatible with the Mediterranean climate of California, or the arid lands of Arizona, New Mexico or Texas, just as a few examples where lawns are still considered a suburban landscaping feature.
This Grass sculpture and video address the environmental impact of lawns and wasting of water, a valuable resource. This standard is not sustainable, even without a drought, as urban populations increase and farming demands an even greater supply of water.
Sculptures and installation from recycled materials with an environmental message are available for purchase or exhibition.
Click on any image to see larger images, description and price.
Harriete Estel Berman assembling A Yard of Grass II (summer 2018.) This sculpture was in the exhibition TERRA inFIRMA at the DR. BERNARD HELLER Musuem.
POSTCARD
Grass postcard is available for purchase. This is a three fold postcard format.
10 cards for $30.00 plus $10.00 shipping.
Dimension of card: 4.25" height x 18" length, or cut into 3 individual 4" x 6" postcards.
Work in progress
This grass sculpture still isn't finished. It is a work in progress. I've been working on it on and off for years. It is about the symbolism of the grass lawn as domestic bliss and iconic suburban living.