The work ‘Horizontal Farming’ brings together the performance ‘Sustainability’ painting ‘Farm to Table’ and work on paper ‘Big Fish Small Pond’. First exhibited in September 2023, following an invitation by the arts collective FOOD OF WAR to participate in their residency and exhibition ‘Uitmelken: Harvesting Money’ at puntWG, Amsterdam, that focused on vertical farming practises in the Netherlands, EU. The opportunity allowed Poznansky to reflect on research developed as artist in residence at the Centre for Environmental Intelligence, University of Exeter, into sustainable agroecology farming practices in the UK and Europe.
‘Sustainability' was an eight-hour live performance work performed within the context of a gallery transformed to resemble an overproducing vertical farm, visitors to the vertical farm were invited to place soil on Poznansky, to engage in the act of planting and burying using the rudimentary traditional farming tool of a spade. Visitor’s were invited to eat edible earth provided and offered by Masharu Factuur founder of The Museum of Edible Earth, 2023.
‘Sustainability’ fused performance art methodologies of endurance with the physical practice of restorative yoga, developed by B.K.S Iyengar, that invokes renewal through conscious active stillness, of which Poznansky has been practicing since 2011. Through using her own body as a medium, Poznansky considered the role of the human body in relationship to sustainable action, asking, how can we maintain, support, uphold, or endure within the fine balance between life and death for our species and the planet.
The painting ‘Farm to Table’ subverts the primary yellow indicative of MacDonalds, with a bowl of lettuce, referencing the style of Van Gogh’s potato farmers. ‘Big Fish Small Pond’ from a series of works on paper that referenced archival photographs depicting domestic small holding in the Netherlands and men posing during a private fishing trip in the USA, juxtaposes localised actions of food acquisition with the wider debate surrounding food security and climate change at a global level.
Video credits: film by Hernan Barrow, edited by Harriet Poznansky, sound track by Harriet Poznansky, ‘wires above ground’ violin, 2016
Installation shot of Food of War’s exhibition ‘Uitmelken: Harvesting Money’ at PuntWG Gallery, 2023, designed and curated by Omar Castillo and Hernan Barros
Installation shot of Food of War’s exhibition ‘Uitmelken: Harvesting Money’ at PuntWG Gallery, 2023.
Work featured by Harriet Poznansky, ‘Farm to Table’, oil on canvas, 2023, ‘Two spades’ relics from performance the ‘Sustainability’, 2023
‘Farm to Table’, oil cutouts on canvas, 80x120xm, 2023
Installation shot of Food of War’s exhibition ‘Uitmelken: Harvesting Money’ at PuntWG Gallery, 2023
Still from performance ‘Sustainability’, soil, lettuce, super size spade, PuntWG, 2023, photo credit: Hernan Barrow
‘Big Fish Small Pond’, ink on paper, 60x80cm, 2023