Site Responsive Artworks
Artists shared works that responded to the ecology of Witwen Park including its wetlands.
Sarah Kavage and her collaborator Ji Sun Chong produced The Seeker, the Healer and the Choir, weaving local willow into sculptures and braiding paths of reed canary grasses. Integrating both native and “invasive” plants, the work invites viewers to reconsider our relationships to things wanted and unwanted in the landscape. Willow was harvested with permission from the Ho-Chunk Nation at Maa Wakacak. As a living sculpture, the work should take root in the wetlands of Honey Creek and continue evolving through the 2024 Farm/Art DTour. Learn more.
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Tory Tepp produced Revenant Canoe which was installed in the pond. The piece speaks to the complex set of relationships, past and present, that intertwine at Witwen Park: the religious history, the environmental state, the indigenous roots, the mill, the water, the burr reeds. All of these compartmentalized moments collide at various intersections depending on one’s placement and perspective. The resonance of the canoe slumbers by day until the unseen can be seen at night. Both are necessary to evoke the spirits that lurk within and beyond this magical place. Learn more.
Native Art Marketplace
Little Eagle Arts Foundation hosted a Native Art Marketplace with five Ho-Chunk artists from their roster: Christopher Sweet, painter and mixed media; Leah Winneshiek, beadwork and jewelry; Kimberly Crowley, black ash baskets; Ferguson Funmaker, Featherwork; and Roxanne Tallmadge Johnson, dance and regalia. There were also presentations by local historian Rob Nurre on the region’s effigy mounds and upcoming LEAF activity by director Melanie Tallmadge Sainz. Each LEAF artist incorporated photographs of family members and mentors into their displays, who had inspired them to pursue a creative path. Learn more.