Hidden Pockets

Disparities in farming; the human machine

Anthropologists have long believed that agriculture provided the seeds from which civilization grew. —ejournalusa, 21stCentury Agriculture

Hidden Pockets addresses the unrecognized labor — the hidden pockets of farming. The green revolution addressed the need to increase crop yield for the growing population, but what about the human element of labor needed in farming?

Migrant and seasonal farm workers perform numerous tasks necessary for cultivating and harvesting a large share of our nation’s food supply.  These undocumented farm workers live below poverty level in shoddy labor camps isolated from the community. These are the real philanthropists, these workers sacrifice basic human needs to nurture food for others all while knowing they will go hungry.

These people who nurture and care for our food are the unrecognized souls providing sustenance.

The sculpture has two components —hands reaching out of the soil not clenched as an activist symbol but out stretched, this is a surrender, a cry for help, an awareness to the abuses farm workers are suffering—the human has become the machine. The sun peaks through openings prompting shadows; the hidden pockets of a maze the workers live, with no way out—it’s a vicious cycle. The metal rod wraps around the hands while leaves cut into the hands, atop this complexity sits a rooster; the symbol of hope. The interplay of the mechanical and wind components create a dynamic statement reflecting the preceise exchange between a great number of elements and the single, coherent picture that emerges from them. The metal sculpture stands 14’H x 4’D x 4’W.