© Caroline Roberts, 2017
In 15 acres I explore the idea of fully knowing a place, approaching it from different angles – documentary, poetic, knowledge systems, and representation. I know from the collective wisdom of many writers – Nan Shepherd and Annie Dillard to name just two – that I cannot ever fully know this place. So much remains hidden from me (deer, rabbits, root fungi, microbes…) and I can only see and observe and take in so much information. I am neither omnipresent nor omniscient. While I am at the gate, watching the sunset across my neighbor’s pond, something is happening on the meadow, or in the sky above. However, I can come to know the bigger picture: the places that are the first to flood in a heavy rain, where the bluebonnets grown best.
When we gather such information we tend to collect it in maps and herbariums, or as illustrations in guidebooks. I want to find a way to present my knowledge and observations in a more complete form, one that is not as linear nor as time-bound. I don’t know how yet, but in Art as in Science, it’s all about asking good questions.