Montana farmland has been told to stop looking so expensive after Landsat images revealed circles and rectangles across north central Montana. It resembles a gallery wall made by people with tractors and a determined sprinkler. Curators praised the scale. They praised the colour. They praised the lack of a cafe. Farmers said the beige bits are wheat. The green bits are not there for anyone’s feelings.
Montana farmland gets a gallery opening
NASA says the fields combine dryland farming and centre pivot irrigation. Dryland plots rely on precipitation. The circles get water from a pivot. That news disrupted the launch party. Guests had hoped a reclusive genius made the patterns with a shovel. They also hoped he hated straight lines.
"Montana farmland confronts the viewer with abundance," said Cressida Varnish, director of the Institute for Very Large Paintings. "It then becomes grain. That is audience participation of a sort." She paused. "Most installations only become damp when someone leans on them."
The crop refuses to be culture
Varnish’s institute wants a velvet rope around the Golden Triangle. It wants bookshops at field gates. It wants timed entry for anyone carrying a combine. The scheme protects art from its biggest danger. People might notice what it is for. The largest circle has already won Best in Show. It was the only work the committee could see from the car park.
NASA has taken a duller view. Landsat data can analyse crop health. They can measure water availability and use. They can monitor drought and other hazards. The art world found this crushing. It preferred to think the satellite checked whether a big green circle was feeling brave. Farmers still hold the unfashionable view that a field should produce something before a critic reviews it.
An art dealer offered to buy one circle. The farmer agreed. The buyer would take the mud, the debt, three hundred acres of barley and every call from a man asking for smaller sizes. Talks ended when the dealer asked whether the harvest could arrive in a white cube.
Read the real story: NASA Earth Observatory’s view of Montana’s Golden Triangle.
