Horizon Line

The origin of the word “horizon” is from the Greek horizōn kyklos or “dividing circle,” meaning the immaterial instant of separation between earth and sky. In the same way that a horizon divides space. the present moment divides time. Horizon Line was a site-specific installation artwork commissioned for a dormant seed drying facility at Black’s Heritage Farm just south of Ames.

The seed drying facility along with other shuttered structures that surround it are a testament to the rapid pace of economic change in the agricultural sector. The work occupied a windowless cinder block room that was 61 feet long, 12 feet tall, and 8 feet wide. In the center of this space sat a canoe constructed of reclaimed barn lumber that was milled in the 1850’s.

A thin strip of color-controllable LEDs ran along the walls’, lighting the space. These lights were diffused through two overlapping layers of copies of the Ames Tribune Newspaper. The layer closest to the LEDs had a torn top edge that cast a shadow against the outer layer and resembled the gently irregular landscape surrounding the space. When seated in the canoe, this strip of light appeared to extend beyond the physical walls of the space and was an illusion of the natural horizon.

An exterior camera with a fish-eye lens grabbed the real-time color of actual horizon and transmitted it to the strip of LEDs. Horizon Line uses the illusion of the physical horizon created by the LEDs, the structure of the seed drying facility, and other visual elements to make visible the past, present, and future of the seed drying facility specifically and, by extension, the sea change experienced by the agricultural sector in the last century. By sitting in the canoe, visitors do not just observe this exposition of time, but participate in its exposition.