Storm King Art Center presents David Brooks: A Proverbial Machine in the Garden an exhibition on view May 4 – November 11, 2013.
David Brooks’s A Proverbial Machine in the Garden comprises a 1970s-model Dynahoe tractor, complete with backhoe and front-end loader, that has been buried beneath Storm King’s iconic landscape. Speaking to Storm King’s past—as an agricultural site—and present—as a carefully sculpted pastoral environment—A Proverbial Machine in the Garden addresses questions of how humans use, consume, and perceive the natural world. Brooks’s work makes reference to the artists of a generation before him who developed Land Art, using site and land as artistic materials. Implicit in the viewing experience of the sculpture is an understanding of the effort expended in its creation. It is designed to be experienced—as a natural landscape or topography would be—by viewers walking across it, taking it in step by step, and understanding its whole through time. It is just this interconnectivity between human and landscape that Brooks means to underscore with A Proverbial Machine in the Garden.
The installation is organized by Nora Lawrence, Associate Curator at Storm King. ww.stormking.org