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Amy Doan

Professor Dib

FWIS 109

30 November 2017

A Confrontation of Nature

Living in the city and in the suburbs, we often lose sight of what unbridled, open

nature looks like and where our food is sourced from. Agnes Denes, a Hungarian-born

American conceptual artist, created a prominent land art piece titled ​Wheatfield: A

Confrontation​ in 1982 to bring this issue to the fore. Within a six month period, Agnes

cleared trash from a two acre landfill in lower Manhattan near the World Trade Center

and Wall Street and planted a wheatfield over it. Over a thousand pounds of wheat was

harvested from this field and then transported around the globe as part of "The

International Art Show for the End of World Hunger." ​Wheatfield: A Confrontation

evokes the duality of mankind’s relationship with nature both as a sanctuary and a

resource. In doing so, this work questions the priorities people have in regards to the

environment and the global community.

Outwardly, ​Wheatfield ​represents the sentimental pastoral ideal, a desire to live

in the rural countryside for a simple lifestyle closer to nature. As seen in photographs of

the land art, the juxtaposition of a lush, rolling field of golden wheat against gray,

imposing skyscrapers is reminiscent of our desire to flee from the city. Despite the

opportunities and resources aplenty in the city, we still covet the idea of living in

untouched nature, of escaping all of the negative financial and social burdens
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associated with the city. Leo Marx, a history professor at MIT, finds that there is “soft

veil of nostalgia that hangs over our urbanized landscape” that remains from the period

of time where our society was composed of an uncomplicated land of “forests, villages,

and farms dedicated to the pursuit of happiness” (6). The fact that Denes chose to

cultivate such a huge, valuable piece of land in the largest city of the United States

parallels our willingness to exchange some aspects of urbanization to make room for

nature. Our desire to incorporate nature into our lives can be seen in each of our 58

national parks and in our outdoors-centered hobbies like gardening and camping. By

confronting New York with a giant field of wheat, this art piece brings nature closer to

the city and reinforces the pastoral ideal.

Denes’ choice of wheat as the focal point of her art portrays our dependence on

nature to sustain us. Wheat is a staple crop that can be milled into flour, distilled into

grain alcohol, woven into straw, and more. By choosing wheat from other staple crops

like rice and corn, Denes points to its versatility as a plant and the fact that so many

people globally depend on it for food. Yet despite the global reliance on wheat, we, as

Americans, rarely see it in its unprocessed form. Weintraub, an American art writer and

curator, points out that “due to our capacity to import goods and export wastes, where

people live [no longer] determines what they consume” so long as one has the funds to

obtain it (24). It is easy for us Americans to savor our tropical fruits and drink our

Arabica coffee while turning a blind eye to the rest of the world hungering while we draw

from their natural resources. ​Wheatfield​ reminds America of the value of life and its

endangerment in the existence of world hunger.

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Wheatfield​ also illustrates our exploitative relationship with nature. Agriculture

and by extension, nature, plays a significant role in the global economy. We tear up

forests and natural terrain across the world to plant profitable crops that not only puts

food in our mouths but also money in our pockets. Raymond Williams, a Welsh novelist

and critic, contends that the “operation on nature [is] producing wealth, and objections

to its other consequences could be dismissed as sentimental” (80). We want the

aesthetic of unspoilt nature but the need to upturn it for money proves greater. With

Wheatfield​, Denes forces us to confront the consequences of agriculture that are not

addressed in the pastoral ideal. That lush, rolling field of golden wheat might look

serene and pleasing but it echos the toll agriculture takes on the environment, such as

polluting waterways with fertilizer runoff and decreasing biodiversity by taking the land

away from the wildlife. Agriculture can also be harmful to us. ​Wheatfield’s​ location is

detrimental to our society because it wastes valuable real estate that could otherwise be

used for a more profitable building. What is more, ​Wheatfield​’s proximity to Wall Street,

a major center of global commerce and trade, symbolizes the ever-lessening gap

between nature and culture despite our penchant to separate mankind from nature. We

tend to view separateness from nature “as a sign of progress and a mark of civilization”

(Weintraub 8) yet Denes contradicts this principle of civilization by planting a huge field

of wheat in the middle of wealthy, populous New York. ​Wheatfield​ addresses the

negative effects of both our use of nature and bringing nature closer to the city.

By transforming two acres of landfill into functional art that is simultaneously able

to support life, Denes illustrates nature’s constant cycle of rebirth and growth in
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Wheatfield: A Confrontation​. Even though the piece only lasted half a year and was

constructed in 1982, it is still relevant now especially considering that not much has

changed in our treatment of nature and the unsolved problem of world hunger. The land

art piece uses a visual juxtaposition to confront our hypocritical relationship with nature:

we uproot it for our own gain while at the same time, expect it to look pristine to

entertain our fantasies.

Works Cited

Marx, Leo. “Sleepy Hollow, 1844.” ​The Machine in the Garden: Technology and the

Pastoral Ideal in America.​ Oxford University Press, 2000. pp3-33.

Weintraub, Linda. ​To Life!: Eco Art in Pursuit of a Sustainable Planet.​ University of

California Press: Berkeley, 2012.

Williams, Raymond. “Ideas of Nature.” ​Problems in Materialism and Culture.​ London:

Verso, 1980.