Chinese - American artist Mel Chin frequently creates works of art that show his deep concern for the world's threatened ecology. Spirit, which the artist describes as a "portrait of a landscape on the line" is no exception. In this room-size installation, an enormous one-ton wooden barrel appears to be dangerously balanced on a rope woven from prairie grasses from the Great Plains. On a symbolic level, the barrel recalls American frontier life and the various consumer goods that such an object would store; the thin rope represents the now-lost Tall Grass Prairie landscape that once extended from Minnesota to Texas. Humankind's aggressive intrusion into nature is powerfully evoked.
				American, 1994, White Oak, tall grass prairie plants, steel, patina, sheetrock, paint, 144 x 240 x 600 in. Museum Purchase, Howald Fund (c) Mel Chin
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