In 1982, conceptual artist Agnes Denes transformed a barren landfill near Wall Street into a two-acre wheat field titled Wheatfield - A Confrontation. Commissioned by the Public Art Fund, the installation required months of labor including soil preparation, hand-digging furrows, planting, irrigation, weeding, and fertilizing, culminating in a harvest of over 1,000 pounds of wheat. The site had been filled with World Trade Center excavation rubble and was valued at $4.5 billion, creating a stark financial juxtaposition. Denes framed the field as an intrusion of nature into the metropolis to symbolize food, energy, and commerce, and to spotlight hunger, resource mismanagement, and environmental degradation. After the harvest, grain and seeds were distributed to multiple cities to extend the work's impact.
In 1982, conceptual artist Agnes Denes transformed a barren landfill near Wall Street into a two-acre wheat field for her project *Wheatfield - A Confrontation*. Commissioned by the Public Art Fund, the work involved months of labor, including soil preparation, hand-digging furrows, and planting seeds. Denes and her team maintained the field through irrigation, weeding, and fertilizing, ultimately harvesting over 1,000 pounds of wheat.
The site, once filled with rubble from the World Trade Center excavation, was valued at $4.5 billion, making the act of planting wheat there a bold statement. Denes used this juxtaposition to critique society's priorities, contrasting the life-giving nature of food with the abstract value of finance and real estate. She described the work as an intrusion of nature into the heart of the metropolis, symbolizing food, energy, and commerce.
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